A SF Examiner restaurant reporter’s job is to bring in ads. On the surface, this may not seem like too bad an idea. The problem is the Examiner was trading good reviews for the ads:
From ‘Grade the News’
George Habit’s food columns are presented as news, but they’re really ad solicitations, reports John McManus. Habit tells him: “Yes, I use the column as an initiative to get advertisers to run an ad. The paper gives me a free rein.” After being asked about the practice, Examiner executive editor Vivienne Sosnowski said she’d label the columns as advertisements from now on.
“We do favor the accounts that are advertisers,” he explained. “Even if the food is no good, the atmosphere is good. You can always find nice things to say about a restaurant.”
Mr. Habit said he occasionally writes about restaurants where he has no hope of selling an ad. “I do that to have the pages look more ethical,” he said.
Is this right? Do you believe a newspaper has the right to do this? Read the article here and feel free to comment: Grade the News.com
I think newspapers have a right to do this, but they owe it to their readers to make any direct quid-pro-quo clear. I’ve often wondered about what kinds of pressure must go on behind the scenes between papers and the restaurants that advertise in them. I mean, say a big restaurant in town, one that frequently runs half-page ads in the Sunday paper and in various weekly pull-outs, comes and says that it is reconsidering its ad buy if the paper doesn’t start giving it better reviews? I’m sure some version of this has happened in most big papers, and that’s got to be a tough issue for editors who know the publisher is obsessed with the bottom line.
By the way, any though to adding a “preview” function to the comments?
Of course they have the right, but whether they should or shouldn’t is quite a different matter. Here’s a good guideline:
http://www.afjonline.com/ethics.htm
Quote:
“To assure their integrity and preserve their credibility, members therefore accept the following standards:
(1) Gifts, favors, free travel or lodging, special treatment or privileges can compromise the integrity and diminish the credibility of food journalists, as well as that of their employers. This includes commercially sponsored contests. Such offers should be avoided. An example is a contest promoting specific food products that is open to food journalists only.
(2) Similarly, food journalists should not use their positions to win favors for themselves or for others.
(3) Secondary employment, political involvement, holding public office or serving in organizations should be avoided if it compromises the integrity of a food journalist.
(4) Because the editorial space allotted to food journalism is not an extension of advertising, brand names or names of specific companies or interest groups should be used only in a newsworthy context or for purposes of clarification.
(5) Food journalists should use their bylines only in conjunction with material that they have written. Material from other sources incorporated in a story should be credited.
(6) To assure accuracy, so-called news communications or press releases should be substantiated.
(7) Expression of opinions, editorials or special articles devoted to the writer?s own views should be clearly labeled as such and thus easily distinguished from the news reports.
(8) Because of the controversial nature of many food-related topics, food journalists accept the obligation to acknowledge opposing views on such issues. “
Hey, sorry about that above. I didn’t do anything abnormal.
But here’s something that might be even more appropriate for a blog:
http://www.kqed.org/weblog/food/2005/09/blogger-ethics.jsp
Also, note that I think you should go ahead and give your impressions of Ristretto, but just give a disclaimer and let people sort it out for themselves.
Thanks msg, I caught the text wrap problem and will look at it as soon as I get a chance. I knew you would figure out some way of breaking it!;)
As for Ristretto, I don’t think impressions of a place the day it opens is really fair to either readers or owners. I have already read the ethics topic.
Not only payola, but evidence of Habit’s laziness. Hey, why find good restaurants to write about when you can leak a few lines of crap and make management happy? He’s an ad guy, after all… as if we couldn’t tell from his prose: “A new and exciting chef has joined the great smelling and tasting kitchen at Cinco De Mayo.” Criminy, the paper should be condemned for printing that. Better, force the former publishers to eat at the contaminated restaurant for a month of lunches.
As for whether a newspaper has the right to keep the readers in the dark: I guess they can report whatever they want; they can say Kerry won the election and that Paris Hilton deserves a MacArthur genius award and that “Elvis Lives!” Why not?
As for whether it’s unethical: clearly, yes. Let’s draw an analogy: you have leukemia, and you go to the doctor, who prescibes a certain kind of chemo. He does not, however, tell you that the maker of this chemo pays him to push it; that there are five and maybe 500 better ways to treat your cancer, but that the makers of those ways are not paying him.
Yes, pharmaceutical companies send free ‘scrips to doctors every day, but it’s usually for Advil. I can choose or not choose to take it, just as I can choose or not choose to go to a restaurant a paper has recommended. The difference is, the packet I get from the doctor is clearly labeled “promotional sample.” Papers must do the same; that, or print “World Weekly News” across the banner and call it a day.
ExtraMSG, the text wrap problem seems to happen in all flavors of wordpress when you indent the first line of a comment or post. I took the indents out of you list and all was well, but before I did that I loaded the default template and got the same problem. I’ll post the question under support but for now just don’t indent.