CNET Reporter Who Quit Over CBS Censorship Lands at The Verge

Greg Sandoval wrote in a blog post that he was "saved" and heading to the Verge

Greg Sandoval has joined the Verge as a senior reporter just two weeks after he quit CNET because he said the news site's parent company, CBS, interfered with its editorial independence.

Greg SandovalSandoval announced his new gig in a blog post. He wrote that editors he reached out to at other publications said they couldn't offer him a job, but advised him to apply at the Verge, Vox Media's fast-growing tech news and lifestyle site.

"They said that if they were in my position, they’d go to work for The Verge," Sandoval wrote in the post. "It made a big impression on me that The Verge has earned such respect from rivals."

Sandoval jumped ship from CNET after CBS prohibited the publication's staff from giving the "Best of Show" of the Best of CES Awards at the International Consumer Electronics Show to a product it considers to be an illegal challenge to its broadcast business. CNET has long been CES's sponsor for the award show.

CBS is locked in a lawsuit against Dish Network over the legality of its product, the Hopper, which allows users to record television and skip all the ads on network television.

“CNET is not going to give an award or any other validation to a product which CBS is challenging as illegal, other networks believe to be illegal and one court has already found to violate the copyright act in its application," CBS said in a recent statement. "Beyond that, CNET will cover every other product and service on the planet.”

After his experience at CBS' stance, Sandoval wrote that he only accepted Verge's offer on the condition that it promise him independence.

"I possess a written guarantee from management that nobody from the business side of the company will ever have any authority over my stories," he wrote. "Long before I arrived, The Verge committed itself to editorial independence."

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