Media & Conflict of Interest

My dear friend, Cyrus, has an interesting discussion going on with Donna Dubinsky, a director at Palm and C.E.O of Numenta, over the seeming conflict of interest that New Yorker's profile of uber tech journalist, Walt Mossberg raises.

In his position as the consumer electronics reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, Mossberg is probably the best known technology journalist today and as the profile makes clear a "brand." But it also reveals more than that.

The profile talks about Mossberg's role as an informal "consultant" for companies on products ranging from cellphones to other gadgets. Dubinsky pitched both the Palm Pilot and the Treo to Mossberg to get his opinion on the device.

I think the revelation is troubling.

Mossberg is known for his integrity and I certainly don't think anyone for a moment believes otherwise. He has also built up a reputation of being fair, impartial, and an advocate for what he believes the average user is looking for from a gadget.

Till the New Yorker's profile on him, I don't think most of his readers knew about his "consulting" role with companies on the gadgets he reviews.

From the point of view of the companies, it makes sense to reach out to him. Mossberg is a very senior technology journalist, knows the industry very well, and has seen products evolve. It also helps that his reviews carry a lot of weight.

So not surprisingly, they want to his opinion on what possibly works for consumers and what doesn't.

But do his readers know that? Is there a disclosure at the end of his review on a product that says, Mossberg may have provided his input during the making of the product?

I think his readers have a right to know that. I have been reading his column for a long time and the New Yorker's revelation certainly came as a shock to me.

Clearly companies are putting a lot of weight behind his suggestions else they wouldn't be reaching out exclusively to him. And not being paid for his role doesn't negate Mossberg's contribution.

The profile also left me wondering whether a certain feature in, say, a cellphone that he praised in his review is because the company tailored the feature to his liking through their discussions during the product evolution stage.

Cyrus had an interesting analogy, and one that I think plays well here to describe the situation. He says: "Let’s say that Spielberg came to Roger Ebert while a film was still in production, and showed him a rough cut of the movie, or a storyboard, or a script, even. Ebert would give his opinion as a “non-official” review, and then Spielberg would go back and change the movie to meet the feedback that Ebert had given him. Then the movie would come out, very different then what Ebert had seen before, and he gave it a positive review. Don’t you think that would be a little strange? ."

I think what the New Yorker profile of Mossberg also shows is the cozy relationship between the big media and the companies they cover.

It's also one reason why, I think, there is increasing distrust of the media among the general public.

Another indication of how relationships between big media and companies work to mutual benefit? Mossberg's All Things D site has a conference coming up soon. Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm, is expected to reveal a new line of business at the conference. There's speculation that it could be related to a new set of devices that Palm may launch.

Hawkins and Palm don't want to reveal any details of that announcement before the conference. While it is certainly their prerogative to chose when they want to announce something, Mossberg's cozy relationship with Palm makes me think it could be a quid-pro-quo relationship, albeit in a very subtle way. What I would be even more interested in seeing is the review of any device that is announced at the conference.

Mossberg may be fair and impartial in his eventual review, if any, but this whole set-up makes me very uncomfortable.

Media companies rarely look at the flaws within themselves. And I am surprised the Mossberg conflicts issue hasn't been discussed more on sites like Romenesko.