
NY Times Considers Ethical Issues With Tech Writer David Pogue - AndrewWarner
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06pubed.html?_r=1
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smiler
If anything disclosing he writes manuals for the software he reviews will
increase the sales - people who weren't previously aware of these manuals will
hear about them and be more likely to buy them!

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anamax
The NYT is completely happy with political reporters who are related to folks
who they cover yet a product reviewer who makes money on the side is an
ethical issue?

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nir
It's not "money on the side". He makes money selling products based on the
ones he covers. If Snow Leopard doesn't sell, "Snow Leopard: The Missing
Manual" doesn't sell either.

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Tichy
The discussion suggests that we should somehow expect from a newspaper to
deliver objective news. That's a very flawed assumption.

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gcv
We should most certainly expect a newspaper to deliver well-researched,
unbiased reporting. When a newspaper is shown to have cheated or made a
mistake, we should stop reading it or receive a full explanation and apology.
The Times is reasonably good about this; as good or better than any other news
source. This does not mean that readers should turn off their brains. Every
reader should approach everything with an open, yet critical mind. Trust,
think, and verify if it's important enough.

Pogue, however, is a reviewer and a columnist, not someone who reports news.
He is part of the whole editorial-"news analysis"-"this is what I
think"-"reviews" staff of the newspaper. It's all biased by definition.

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Tichy
"We should most certainly expect a newspaper to deliver well-researched,
unbiased reporting."

It's not that I wouldn't like to see this, but it seems very unlikely to me
that it exists.

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gcv
Most papers bend over backwards to avoid bias in pure news coverage. The
resulting he-said she-said style of reporting is rather comical, and sometimes
gives credence to complete nonsense.

"A house in the XYZ section of Some Town burned down at 11 o'clock last night.
Firemen investigated the smoldering ruins and found the remains of an antique
gas boiler. Fire Department records show that the boiler has not been
inspected since 1923, and a spokesman believes that the boiler exploded.
However, Miss Crazy Lady, a homeless person found napping several blocks away,
claimed that the alleged explosion is a fabrication. She told this reporter
that she clearly saw with her own eyes a demon ascending from the ground and
setting the house on fire. 'It was Asmodeus himself,' she said. 'Or maybe
Beelzebub.'"

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dasil003
Does anyone else think "disclosing" this would just boost sales of the book
more than any effect on how people read the article?

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desu
This goes way beyond Pogue. There are plenty of journalists of all stripes
whose writings I would suspect a lot less if I knew, say, their entire stock
portfolio.

Having David place all ( _all!_ ) his personal investments into a blind trust
seems like an excellent idea which many other media personalities' credibility
might benefit from. The same goes double for anyone talking about the stock
market directly, especially "analysts" - in fact it arguably should be a
condition of the job.

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frossie
Right, but the main issue here is not related to his stocks, it is related to
the fact that he writes manuals for products he reviews. I don't entirely
understand why this is such a big issue - it is normal, for example, for
someone who has written a biography of say Sibelius, to be asked to review
Sibelius recordings or perhaps somebody else's review of Scandinavian
composers. I'm not sure why technology should be different. Yes there is a
potential conflict of interest, but normal disclosure rules seem to cover
them.

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michael_dorfman
Two issues here:

1) the "normal disclosure rules" weren't in effect, up until now-- there was
no requirement (or expectation) for Pogue to mention that he was also writing
books related to the review subjects;

2) the "Sibelius" example isn't quite analogous; in this case, you have
someone recommending that people upgrade to Snow Leopard, when he has (through
book sales) a vested interest in seeing that people upgrade to Snow Leopard
(and not skip this release.)

That being said, I think the NYT handled the case admirably.

