Re:NY Times Considers Ethical Issues With Tech Writer David ...
by michael_dorfman on Monday September 07, 2009 @05:57AM
(#808905)
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.
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.