twodoebs

Here's an excerpt from today's "Mossberg's Mailbox" as published in "The Wall Street Journal" (the link is located here, but I'm not so sure that that'll stay online forever, so I've cut-and-pasted this response for posterity. Take a read, then I'll comment on it "on the flip side."

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Q: I am wondering if you ever get paid by companies, in cash or kind, for any reviews or recommendations of their products that you make in your articles. I ask this because I have recently read that a number of reviewers in the media charge money for favorable opinions or mention of technology products.

A: No, I don't. I neither seek, nor accept, money, or anything else of value, from the companies whose products I cover. I return any products I am lent for review, except for items of minor value which companies don't want back. In the case of these items, I either discard them or give them away in return for donations to charity.

I also don't accept trips, speaking fees or "editorial discounts" from companies whose products I cover. If I want a product I review for my own use, I buy it, at retail. And I don't own a single share of stock in any of the companies whose products I cover. Also, I never coordinate my reviews with our advertising sales department, and don't solicit or sell ads. On many occasions, I have written negative reviews of products from companies that advertise prominently in this newspaper, and positive reviews of companies that don't advertise.

While I can't speak for other reviewers at other publications, I believe that generally similar policies are followed by major reviewers in the best known print publications. It's unfortunate that a few so-called reviewers, mainly on television, do charge companies for mentions, and thus raise doubts in the public's mind about technology reviews in general.

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The truth about it, of course, is that the reviewer is speaking of a widely publicized incident concerning the "Today" show's reviewers (back story is available in a reprint from an article in "The Wall Street Journal" here). This adds to the ongoing struggle I've been having with the "Today" show in the last couple of weeks. Not only have they been raked in the "New York Times" recently, but now it turns out that they're just as unscrupulous as I had once feared they may have been.

Paula's already also expressed concern, also citing co-host Matt Lauer's marital troubles, and I KNOW Sweet Kati'll say, but I wonder how others feel. Is "Good Morning America" the morning show of the future?
BUT, Walt Mossberg renews my hope in fair and balanced technology reports. For me, he is to the new millennium what Norm Abram was to the '90s!