EDITORIAL : PAYING FOR JUSTICE REWARDS CAN BE USEFUL - PROVIDING THEY ARE DONE PROPERLY.

CHECKBOOK journalism as practiced by the supermarket tabloids and tabloid TV shows has always been considered unethical by responsible, mainstream media outlets. For example, paying for and publishing gruesome crime scene photos of little JonBenet Ramsey's body, as one tabloid newspaper did, serve no useful purpose other than to titillate the public.

So when two national tabloids - the National Enquirer and the Globe - offer rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of 27-year-old Ennis William Cosby's killer, some might question the motives and wonder about the appropriateness.

What prompted the rewards was a challenge issued by entertainer Bill Cosby, who figured since the tabloids were likely to pay for information anyway, they might as well try to solicit some real clues to help find and convict his son's killer.

On Monday, the National Enquirer was the first to pony up, offering a $100,000 reward. Hours later, the Globe sweetened the pot by offering a $200,000 reward of its own.

A few experts raised their eyebrows, and with good cause. As Stan Goldman, a Loyola law professor, pointed out, offering a reward could jeopardize witness credibility.

In the O.J. Simpson case, for example, a witness who said she saw Simpson driving away from the Bundy Drive crime scene was never called by the prosecution after she sold her story to a tabloid. Prosecutors were afraid ``she was tainted.''

But if done properly, rewards can be useful. As long as the reward is based on information that leads to an arrest and conviction and tips are given directly to the police, the problem of credibility would be reduced.

Offering rewards will draw perhaps dozens or hundreds of crank calls and misleading information. But rewards also might draw out people or witnesses who otherwise would remain silent.

If the object is to serve justice, rewards are proper. But if they are just gimmicks to attract readers or viewers by exploiting the ordeals of innocent people who have been victimized by crime, such practices are tawdry, tasteless and deserving of condemnation.