July 6, 2011

New York Times
A little over a week ago I wrote about Ragan’s PR Daily using David Pogue’s favorite PR pitches in a $159 seminar. Times public editor Arthur Brisbane says his inquiry into this has led to a Times internal review and now Pogue is barred from making any more speeches like this one to PR people.

The decision came because such appearances are explicitly prohibited by The Times’s ethics policy. Excerpts of the relevant portions: “Staff members may not advise individuals or organizations how to deal successfully with the news media (though they may of course explain the paper’s normal workings and steer outsiders to the appropriate Times person)….They should not take part in public relations workshops that charge admission or imply privileged access to Times people….”

Pogue told Brisbane that he agrees “not to do any more speaking for Ragan or any PR-related event or organization,” and that in the future “my speaking agent will now present every offer to my editor and me simultaneously. In other words, every single talk will now be approved in advance, as it’s supposed to be.”

Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
Donate
From 1999 to 2011, Jim Romenesko maintained the Romenesko page for the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based non-profit school for journalists. Poynter hired him in August…
Jim Romenesko

More News

Back to News

Comments

Comments are closed.