(Credit: DickMorris.com, screenshot)

Media Matters reported that several journalists, including Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, the Tampa Bay Times media critic Eric Deggans, and Society of Professional Journalists‘ ethics committee chairman Kevin Smith, have questioned Fox News “contributor Dick Morris’ attempt to auction off a tour of Fox studios at a Republican fundraiser.”

Fox’s executive vice president of programming Bill Shine told Media Bistro’s TV Newser that Morris had been “reprimanded” and that “tour will absolutely not take place.”

About the response to the attempted auction, SPJ ethics committee chair Smith is quoted by Media Matters as saying “Fox views conflicts of interest under a different prism than most news outlets and most journalists. We are talking about a continuum of behavior that erodes their credibility.”

Further, Smith told Media Matters that other networks would likely have issued an apology or “handled differently” the incident.