When Tim Russert
died, most media reporters wrote obits or contributed to the endless
on-air tributes. But at least one was on a plane en route to a weekend
in Las Vegas paid for by the subject of a story.

A reasonable
person might wonder what kind of media reporter could take such a
freebie. That's easy: a blogger. And would you believe me if I told you
that this particular blogger passes judgment on other reporters? Only
on The Huffington Post, where a former Republican beard
has decided that the glamour to attract writers and the gall to ask
them to write for nothing is the journalistic formula of the future.
Surprise: You get what you pay for.

The media reporter in question is Rachel Sklar, who doesn't let the fact that she's never done much reporting stop her from judging those who have. This, apparently, is her idea of a story: a report on a Las Vegas junket to promote the Thrillist
email list. The fact that the URL of the story contains a reference to
the nipple of a fellow blogger pretty much sums up the content. Then
again, it also contains the word "exclusive." Hold Page One!

Let's
leave aside any questions about how many people are interested in
Thrillist. Or, for that matter, how many people are interested in a
free trip a few bloggers took on their dime. (I suppose everyone online
is interested in a nipple.) How can a media reporter take such a
freebie, even if she cops to it? And how come no one else seems to
care? Portfolio blogger Jeff Bercovici wrote a post that questioned how New York Post reporters were able to accept a free trip, but he didn't mention Sklar. (Full disclosure: I write for Portfolio, but not its website, and I don't know Bercovici.) Who watches the watchmen, indeed.

Most respectable publications have guidelines that allow writers to
accept certain meals, not-so-valuable items they're writing about, and
gifts up to a certain point. (A $10 bottle of wine might be allowed,
for example, while a $500 trip to a winery would not.) Of course, most
blogs aren't respectable. That's why marketing people love them –
they're for sale. And not for very much money, to judge by Sklar's
excitement about the extra freebies handed out on the plane. Judging
from how impressed she is by vodka and a Zune, it's amusing to imagine
what she'd write in return for a car.

Or, considering the fact that The Huffington Post has some political influence, maybe it's not so funny after all.