Be wary of freebies. The critic should ideally never accept round-trip first-class air transportation, a luxury hotel room, a limo to a screening and a buffet of chilled shrimp and cute little hamburgers in preparation for viewing a movie. If you go, your employer should pay for the trip. I understand some critics work for places that won't even pick up the cost of a movie ticket, and are so underpaid they have never tasted a chilled shrimp. Others work for themselves, an employer who is always going out of business. Yet they are ordered to produce a piece about Michael Cera's new film. I cut them some slack. Let them take the junket. They need the food. Also, I admire Michael Cera. But if they work for a place that is filthy rich, they should turn down freebies.
The whole article is a great read, a real insight into the practical application of ethics, and also has some bits about rice cookers, because it's Roger Ebert, the man who wrote a cook book entirely about rice cookers.
This is an old story, and ever time it comes up I am reminded of Roger Ebert's little book of rules:
The whole article is a great read, a real insight into the practical application of ethics, and also has some bits about rice cookers, because it's Roger Ebert, the man who wrote a cook book entirely about rice cookers.
Seriously.