David Pogue - Controversy

Controversy

In a 2005 New York Times review of a hard drive recovery service, Pogue noted that the service, which can cost from $500 to $2,700, was provided to him at no charge for the purposes of the review; but when describing the service for National Public Radio's Morning Edition program on September 12, 2005, he neglected to mention this. NPR's Vice President of News Bill Marimow later stated that NPR should have either not aired the review or paid for the services itself. Ultimately, the Times paid for the service.

In September 2009, Pogue’s New York Times review of the Snow Leopard Macintosh operating system, a product for which he had also authored a Missing Manual book, was the subject of a column by The Times’ Public Editor Clark Hoyt. Hoyt wrote that Pogue’s "multiple interests and loyalties raise interesting ethical issues." Of three ethicists Hoyt consulted, each agreed Pogue's position created a "clear conflict of interest" and placed the paper on "tricky ethical terrain." In response, Pogue posted a statement of ethics on his Times Topics page and a disclosure was added to his Snow Leopard review on The Times’ web site.

In June 2011, Pogue gave a presentation at the Media Relations Summit sponsored by Ragan Communications in which he offered advice to PR professionals on how to successfully pitch him. Arthur S. Brisbane, The New York Times’ reader representative, subsequently wrote that the paper’s ethics policy states staff members and freelancers on assignment "may not advise individuals or organizations how to deal successfully with the news media." Though Pogue is not a Times staff member and was not on assignment, an internal review determined that his presentation wasn’t appropriate. In an email to Brisbane about the matter, Pogue wrote that in the future, ""my speaking agent will now present every offer to my (Times) editor and me simultaneously."