Real Ethical Dilemmas
Here are a few real ethical dilemmas faced by yours truly:
1) Do I dare write about the NYT's dumb ethics policy? What if I piss off the Times? Oh yeah, I can't write for them anyway, so I guess that's not much of dilemma. (But that calculation does explain why a lot of other people aren't piping up.)
2) I discover that Professor Postrel knows and likes Mary Tripsas. Should I not write about her problems, for fear of hurting their relationship? Should I not say her article wasn't very good?
3) Forbes.com asks me to write something on the occasion of Ralph Lauren's 70th birthday. I admire Ralph Lauren's use of glamour, but the company is in the news for a Photoshop disaster (not glamorous) and Ralph Lauren's most recent, Depression-inspired, collection borders on parody (silver lamé overalls!). For my glamour book, I'm going to want to use one or more photos from Ralph Lauren's ads. Do I write the column, include the recent missteps, and risk not getting permission to use such photos? (I did.)
4) I'm writing a DeepGlamour blog post about disappointing gifts. Do I include examples from my personal experience, at the risk of hurting the gift-giver's feelings? (I didn't.)
Note that none of these dilemmas have anything to do with who pays for what. They're all about relationships.