Media Outlets Making Money Off the People They Interview for Free

Media outlets make money off the people they interview for free...does this bother you?  It bugs me, although I acknowledge that the overall flow of information might be seriously slowed were they obliged to pay folks for asking them questions and then airing them.  My mind keeps going back to Fox News celebrity Jesse Watters, a likeable young man who made his name on the old Bill O'Reilly show going up and down city streets and exposing the abject ignorance of people at large when they couldn't correctly answer the simplest questions.  Now Jesse is a millionaire and his star only keeps rising...after O'Reilly was canned in disgrace for his sex scandals, Watters has been given his own prime time show on that channel.  I don't know about you, but I for one would never sign any release for a street-side interview with any for-profit news organization, especially those with a reputation for spinning the news in a specific direction and whose stars are soaking themselves in wealth...unless they in turn paid me for my contribution to their profits.   It's one thing to say that paying people to be interviewed would ethically taint objectivity and somehow violate journalism ethics: it's another for companies and their employees to nearly universally practice this behavior...excluding special paid interviews...while always carefully looking after their own financial bottom line.  Sure, it can be argued that with more public figures like government officials the press needs unimpeded access to them without a demand for compensation.  And many artists, athletes, and others aspiring to public fame and wealth see any media exposure...paid or unpaid...as something to be sought after.  But for me...and most of us as well...I don't believe it is proper for others to enrich themselves at our expense...