From Danny’s Facebook page:
Corporate journalist Danny Glover, who used to write for National Journal, had a rather big stick in his craw a while back about bloggers going on trips sponsored and paid for by anyone other than themselves. Danny felt that this was a serious conflict of interest. That was before Danny got to put on a really cool helmet and goggles and fly “somewhere in the Atlantic” with the US Navy. Now, Danny is all for journalists going on “luxurious junkets.” Especially when they get to fly in Navy “helos,” as Danny now calls them.
Now, I have no problem with Danny going on a taxpayer funded junket to the mid-Atlantic. I’m sure it was in fact “really cool.” And I even don’t have a problem with Danny donning that cute little Michael Dukakis helmet and goggles. I do have a problem, however, with corporate journalists who criticize bloggers for doing the exact same things that they do.
Here’s what Danny had to say two years ago about bloggers going on government-funded trips:
What’s more, transparency is not sufficient justification for media outlets — and that’s what blogs want the U.S. government to call them — to accept favors from an agency with an agenda. Bloggers rightly maligned columnists Armstrong Williams and Doug Bandow for taking money from the Bush administration and Abramoff. Now some of the them are guilty of similar arrangements with the government of Netherlands, and they deserve the same scorn.No one who makes the trip is compelled to write one word, good or bad, about Amsterdam, and maybe some bloggers will return home and say nasty things about the place. But somehow I doubt they will.
Pretty unequivocal. Accept travel from governments and you deserve scorn because it will be impossible for you to ever write anything negative about the people sponsoring the trip, per per Danny Glover.
Now, it’s possible that Danny paid for this entire trip out of his own pocket. Uh huh. But if he didn’t, then we can only assume that Danny will no longer be writing anything, anywhere, about the US military, or any topics involving Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, or anything else dealing with US security policy. After all, how many times did I write about Amsterdam and Edinburgh after I visited there on my junkets? Zero, Danny, zero. Here’s hoping for the same level of professionalism from a “real” journalist.
And PS, Danny. First rule of junkets. Never let them sucker you into putting on funny outfits. The pictures always get out.
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