Last week, Scripps News aired a half-hour commercial disguised as news programming to hype the Tablo TV digital video recorder device owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. 

Scripps News’s James Packard, who fancies himself an "actor and broadcaster" on his IMDB page conducted the interview with Tablo spokesman and former NFL player Emmitt Smith, which featured Tablo boxes prominently displayed in the background of the shot.

The segment used CES (Consumer Electronics Show) as the backdrop to try to push the Scripps product.

Scripps CEO Adam Symson also made an appearance, pitching his company’s device.

While paying Emmit Smith money to shill your device is all well and good, having your news service do what was basically a commercial, is not cool.

“Sadly, Scripps News has seemingly become a mouthpiece for pushing E.W. Scripps corporate sales pitches, and they are trying to call it news,” said one Scripps employee to FTVLive.