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When talking to technology industry journalists, I'm not surprised that bribery starts to seem like a halfway good idea. Because most of it is bribery, of an indirect sort. In this industry, people are allowed to fly journalists to exotic locations, throw them massively expensive parties, comp them entry to conferences, entertain them, take them out to fabulous restaurants, give them enormous amounts of their valuable time, allow them sneak previews, team t-shirts and other tchotchkes, etc. etc. etc. And that's the stuff that's on the books. If you look at it as a simple ROI calculation, bribing a journalist seems like a good deal, and not tremendously different from all the other stuff you would have had to do anyway. I'm not sure that it's simple ethics that makes us all recoil from bribery. Because we're obviously okay with all the other indirect, soft bribery. I think, at a deeper level, people realize that once journalists offer direct quid pro quos, then there will be no end to their demands. So giving in to one will hurt all of one's colleagues (and oneself) in the future. |