“Appropriate Action Has Been Taken” With Dateline Producer?

Remember this story about Shane Bishop last week?

Two news media experts say a Dateline NBC producer, who wrote letters to two governors recommending leniency for a convict suspected of killing two area women, overstepped his boundaries as a journalist,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

“Journalists should never become players in a story,” Poynter’s Bob Steele said. “Our job as journalists is to hold institutions and individuals accountable. Journalists should not be making deals with the same public officials we cover.”

NBC didn’t send TVNewser a statement, but they told the newspaper that “Shane Bishop’s actions in connection with two unsolved murders in the Fort Worth area in 1982 and 1983 do not reflect the views or opinions of NBC News or Dateline NBC.” And: “Given that Mr. Bishop’s actions are in violation of NBC News policy, appropriate action has been taken.” What was the action?

(Via Romenesko)