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Should restaurant critics disclose sources of food finds?

Jim Romenesko by Jim Romenesko Published Dec. 7, 2010 9:32 am Updated Dec. 7, 2010 10:58 am

Dallas Observer | D Magazine
That question was raised in Dallas media circles after the Dallas Morning News critic’s new list of the top barbecue joints included eight places mentioned in a February D Magazine piece. Dallas Observer restaurant critic Hanna Raskin says “it would have been nice” for the News critic to give the D Mag critic a shout-out, “but I’m not yet ready to categorize restaurant finds as intellectual property.” || More discussion.

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  • Anonymous

    It wasn’t just that the lists overlapped – it’s that a mistake that made it through D Mag’s fact checkers also appeared in Brenner’s list, too.
    And the fact that she condescendingly told (shades of Cook’s Source) the critic (a barbecue expert of some repute) that as a blogger, he was just unfamiliar with common journalistic practices.

  • http://twitter.com/dallasfoodorg Scott DFW

    8 out of 9 restaurants on the DMN list were from the D Magazine ranking, including 6 out of D’s top 7.
    Only 1 restaurant on the DMN list has ever been reviewed by the DMN.
    Only 1 restaurant on the DMN list was from Texas Monthly’s Top 50 barbecue joints in Texas list (but was also on the D list).
    The author of the D Magazine list ate at over 130 barbecue joints in DFW in preparing his list. The author of the DMN article told the Dallas Observer that she only ate at about 20.

    Whether critics should disclose their sources for restaurant finds is one question. The more important question seems to be whether a critic should disclose the fact that his or her work relies almost entirely on the independent research of another publication.

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