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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

SR Pulls Plug on 7 Column Over Ethics Slip

Some readers may have noticed that Courtney Dunham's "All We Never Knew" blog has disappeared from www.spokane7.com, and that her column did not run in today's print edition of 7. Editor Nancy Malone, along with Steve Smith and Gary Graham, made the decision to pull the plug on the column after Dunham acknowledged on her blog that she accepted a free stay at a hotel in Hawaii in exchange for writing about it.

Here's the first few sentences from the blog post, which was pulled after a few hours:


I just returned from a biz trip to Hawaii. I had to go after I was dragged to a Maui Tourism luncheon last spring where a marketing director from a major resort invited me to come and write about their luxury hotel. She was familiar with my column and freelancing projects, and said I was perfect to broaden the appeal of Maui to all people, not just couples. She offered it to me comp and said she’d roll out the red carpet for me. How could I say no after such pressure?

The blog post goes on to explain that after the intitial offer was retracted, Dunham then aggressively solicited similiar arrangements at another resort. Our ethics policies strictly forbid staffers from accepting freebies of any sort. The same rule applies to freelancers or correspondents when they write material for our paper (we can't tell them what to do when they write for other publications). Smith noted that a staff writer who made a similar arrangement would probably be fired on the spot. For the rest of the post by Ken Paulman/Daily Briefing, click here

DFO: BTW, Blogmeister Ken also provides insight into how shocked SR Editors Steve Smith and Gary Graham were when they heard about the Cowles purchase of the Catholic bishopric here.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.