Paying a scumbag for an interview is problematic in the sense that it shows a willingness to "fund bad people" in exchange for their stories. This does not crea

Paying a scumbag for an interview is problematic in the sense that it shows a willingness to "fund bad people" in exchange for their stories. This does not create a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a bias. Having the scumbags who were responsible for producing the festival involved in producing the documentary can lead to a MASSIVE conflict of interest and screams of bias in the narrative. This is a false equivalency. One is good jurnos doing bad things to tell the story. The other could be bad jurnos doing a bad thing to spin a story.