CNBC Puts World Business on Hold…

Politico’s Keach Hagey reports that CNBC has cancelled World Business after an ethical cloud started to surround the program. Hagey also reports that blog which started this firestorm also alleged the BBC and CNN were impacted which is something that CNN has denied.

CNBC has pulled its weekend international business show, “World Business,” after a blog edited by Gordon Brown’s sister-in-law found that the show’s production company was doubling as a PR firm for Malaysian politicians.

The blog, the Sarawak Report, named after one of the states on the island of Borneo, reported that the London-based television production-company, FBC Media, had a contract with Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, to improve his international image. It suggests FBC carried out this contract in part through puff pieces in the news shows it produced.

“In light of serious questions raised last week, CNBC immediately initiative an examination of FBC and its business practices and has withdrawn the program ‘World Business’ indefinitely,” Brian Steel, senior vice president of media relations at CNBC, told POLITICO.

‘World Business’ did not run in the U.S. market, but aired in Europe on Friday nights and in Asia on Saturday evenings.