[logicalmoron]

SAI/former VentureBeat reporter here: it's considered a moderate offense. Could infer to your/our Twitter followers etc. that there was an exchange for positive coverage, which is a pop at our credibility.

Credibility is basically all we have. (However small it is.)

[Retric]

IMO, On the consumer side credibility is not as important in tech journalism when compared to say political reporting. Products get canceled, startups die, so you would have to predict the future to always be relevant. Having connections and finding interesting stories / ideas and knowing how to critique them is more important than knowing the iPad7's release date.

We have all read bad spin, and honestly it quickly becomes noise.