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Mar 13, 2005 9:30 AM

Accepting Trip Bribes Disgusts Me


Posted by Robin Liss

There's a mini-controversy going on in the gadget blog space. Gizmodo, one of the two leading gadget blogs, accepted a free trip from Siemens to cover CeBiT in Hannover, Germany. Independent publishers accepting gifts from manufacturers like that disgusts me. Jason Calcanis, who owns Engadget (Gizmodo's big competitor) blogs about the whole thing. A lot (most) of our competition accepts these kinds of gifts. They accept free cameras and camcorders. It's really disgusting. You can't cover a company objectively if they are paying for your plane ticket and hotel, and if they're giving you gifts. They are bribes and if someone tells your otherwise it's probably because they are accepting them. Our readers entrust us to make recommendations on thousands of dollars worth of purchases that they are making. How can they continue to trust us if we're being bribed? Our company policy is very strict: No gifts from a manufacturer. You can have little promotional items like pens and T-shirts from trade shows but we're very strict about those. The only thing which could be construed even somewhat as a gift is meals and drinks, which we're allowed to accept but only when it is for developing a source or working on a story. I even sometimes have qualms about the meal and drink policy but we really have no choice because a lot of important networking and information flow goes on at private parties which we must attend. These parties are really the only way to develop good sources. Anyway, this is a really important point to me. I don't know if it's because the manufacturers have realized that they're working with a lot of people who have no clue about journalism ethics and are not making a ton of money, but they seem to really be pushing these trips lately. Just know that when you read something from one of my publications, the authors, editors, and staff aren't being bribed by the companies they cover.



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