Noosepapers have a subtle way of acknowledging their mistakes, and a heavy-handed slant with stories about bloggers. Two recent posts, two recent "corrections."
Regarding "Just Friends," this New York Times Editor's Note, dated October 6th:
An article in the Dining section on Sept. 26 by Eric Asimov reported on the restaurant scene in Portland, Ore., and one of the establishments mentioned was Paley’s Place, owned by Vitaly and Kimberly Paley. Mr. Asimov said it had “a warm and intimate dining room” and that Paley’s Place “is recognized as one of the top restaurants in the Northwest, if not the country.” He also wrote that Paley’s Place was one of several restaurants that had “served as an incubator for much of the talent that is making its mark today.”Guess that's that, then. No harm, no foul? Asimov didn't get paid, so it's all smoothed over.Mr. Asimov is a friend of the Paleys, and while doing reporting for the article in Portland, he selected wines for a dinner he attended at Paley’s Place, which promoted his presence in advance.
Even though Mr. Asimov was not reviewing or assessing the restaurant, he should have disclosed in the article his friendship with the owners, and he should not have created the appearance of favoritism toward them by participating in the wine dinner, for which he accepted no compensation.
For its part, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer responds to our post "Leslie's Lasagna" with a new capsule review. In this space last week we castigated a freelance resto writer for failing to mention that a dish she apparently enjoyed actually came from a neighboring kitchen to which she'd given her lowest-rating. Setting the record straight:
A lone pasta entree is a lovely lasagna made for Via Tribunali by Enza Sorrentino, who has a restaurant that bears her name just down the road.Does that mean we can say "never mind"?
Well, not really. Wall Street Journal weighs in with one of those shocked, shocked feature on "food bloggers" who get free meals. (You'll notice that bloggers don't write similar pieces about newspapers with deep pockets. And BTW, WSJ, Yelp commenters aren't food bloggers; CitySearch ain't no blog.) Restaurants give away food, newspapers give out free papers: dat's called marketing. What the newspapers want, duh, is for the restaurants to spend their marketing budget on newspaper advertising. Bloggers are threatening; we must be ridiculed, misrepresented, stamped out!
Posted by Ronald Holden at October 7, 2007 8:39 PM
The International Kitchen
Cooking school vacations in Italy, France & Spain.
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