Comments on: What Did Eric Asimov Do Wrong?

By: How to Get Six Pack Fast

How to Get Six Pack Fast — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:49:04 +0000

My fellow on Facebook shared this link and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.

By: M. Pace

M. Pace — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:53:02 +0000

“Gotta problem with that?” should read “Got a problem with that?”.

“Gotta” means “Got to”, as in “Gotta run now.”

It doesn’t mean “Got a” as in “Got a problem with that?”.

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:21:14 +0000

Yer right on the money, Doc. I was book review editor for my newspaper for 15 years and reviewd books for 20 years. I also reviewed classical CDs. (And wine, of course.) All of these materials came to us free. And as you point out, no one ever said, how dare you review books or CDs or wine that comes in the mail free to you, you’ve compromised your integrity. And, when one is a journalist in the arts or food or wine, unless you live in complete isolation, like a hermit in a cave (with FedEx and UPS) then inevitably you come into contact with the very people you sometimes write about. That factor simply means that you must be ever vigilant in maintaining objectivity and reason.

By: Dr. Debs

Dr. Debs — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:01:20 +0000

I found myself thinking about your post all morning, so decided I should probably respond rather than stew in private.

I review books–lots of books. I don’t buy these books, they’re given to me. Virtually every book was written by someone I know. Some I know well. Some I know less well. Some I like personally. Some I would cheerfully never see again.

At no time, however, does anyone suggest that the fact the books were free, or the fact that I know the people who wrote them, means I can’t review the book.

I think it’s right to disclose relationships when you think they may be seen as making your wine review or restaurant review biased. But surely this is taking the idea (fiction, really) of impartiality to excess? All kinds of things influence wine reviews: mood, traffic conditions on your way home, the label, the name on the label, how much you paid for it, whether you’ve liked this wine in the past, etc. Ditto for restaurants.

I agree with you, Fred. This was an “oops, should have handled that matter better” moment for Eric, not a “tar and feather him for biased reviews” moment.

I’m considering appending some version of the following to all my published book reviews: “In the interest of full disclosure I wish you to know that I didn’t pay for this book. I had drinks with the author of this book at a convention in Minneapolis in 2007, passed by the author’s partner in a hotel lobby in 2004, carpooled to a conference in a mini-van with this author in 2005, and once discussed the subject of this book with the author when we were in an elevator.”

Ridiculous.

By: Fredric Koeppel

Fredric Koeppel — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:02:23 +0000

the ways of newspaper politics are byzantine.

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:53:58 +0000

my writer gal Kim (she get paid to do this) says it was probably a moment for the Times to do a little bloodletting and this was a good, innocuous opportunity to pay the piper on some other account (re: creds)

By: Nicolas PALAZZI

Nicolas PALAZZI — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:54:39 +0000

What a story!! I am shocked, really!
First thing tomorrow, I will cancel my subscription to the Times. Non, mais..!!

Non, seriously, who cares?? Here is something that will surely be a very important theme of discussion within the small world of the wine-bloging sphere for the next 3 weeks and it’s kinf of sad. Let’s leave that to the “People” magazines. It’s worth them.

I hope this will not interfere too much with the content of the best blog out there: yours as well as The Pour…

Let’s focus on the essential: what is new out there? what is to be bought and drunk??

So little time, so many wines.

By: Dale Cruse

Dale Cruse — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:53:05 +0000

I think if Mr. Asimov had simply disclosed the nature of his relationship within the article, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. No harm no foul to me.