Hits And Misses

Holding out for illumination....

It's tough trying to walk the invisible line between ethics, integrity, journalism and blogging. I'm a professional writer. Publications hire me to write about food based on my hospitality credentials and the F&B knowledge gained by years of food love (and abuse). When I go for a food review in the person of contributor to a Malaysian daily, I am wined and dined and fawned over. Do I like it? Of course I do! The shallow, easily-flattered, dark side of me gobbles it up, the way I scarf wagyu and foie gras.

The realer side of me: the side who brings a book on pork cuts to my Cantonese-speaking butcher in an effort to explain what I need for a pot roast, grins what I like to think is my sardonic, lopsided Han Solo smile, and knows that very few of these grovelers will make it to my Facebook friend list and even fewer to my phone contacts.

Then there is a question of ethics. When I am invited as a member of the mainstream media, should I be writing a piece only for the commissioning paper? If I run a personal blog that makes no money whatsoever, can I use information and photos gained as a press person on my blog? If so, should I wait for my newspaper article to come out first? What if the paper has sat on my story for over a month? Do I wait, knowing, since I am the originator of the article, that what I will write for the blog is different from what will appear in print? What happens if the print article never runs? Do I forego my blog entry? If I wait, how long should I wait? These are my questions as I round up the week. I am waiting for Sunday to see if the article about the place which sparked off these questions is run...