Media in the New Millennium

posted by John Metzger

Should bloggers disclose they’ve received a product for free when writing about it? Should we assume that someone who is handed a trade show goodie bag has been bought off? If that’s all it takes to compromise journalistic integrity, we’re far worse off than anything the Federal Trade Commission is trying to legislate against.

Full disclosure: In the mid-‘80s, as the editor of A&E Systems Magazine, the PR people from Autodesk bought me a really nice dinner during a trade show. I then published a favorable review on the latest version of the company’s computer-aided design software – without mentioning the suspected “bribe.”

Were my readers duped into buying something they shouldn’t have? Although Autodesk was an advertiser and plied me with drinks and food, I maintained journalistic objectivity. Had I not been loyal to my readers with honest information, the free market would have eventually taken care of the problem by weeding out a weak product and a magazine that couldn’t be trusted. Autodesk brought value to the marketplace and productivity gains to their customers, and it was my job to report on their progress, free dinner be damned.

Years later, as I drifted from journalism to the “dark side” of PR, I became the one buying dinner. It was really just out of courtesy as the host inviting someone to hear some news. I think we all understood each other’s role. But over time it became common for journalists to refuse the free meal because their media outlet now had policies that prohibited them from accepting “gifts.”

Personally, I would feel a bit silly if I was a journalist whose company didn’t trust me on my own to maintain editorial integrity in the face of a nice dinner or some trade show schwag.

Payola-grubbing, unethical journalists and bloggers aren’t hiding behind every tree. Sure, there are a few out there. But there are millions more out there who take the personal responsibility to make purchasing decisions on their own, as carefully and with as much diligence, research and comparisons as they care to make. We don’t need legislation protecting us from any and all ethical sleights of hand.

Let’s just leave it at that, and leave the government out of it.

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