Taking a trip paid for by company that you’re reporting about`

Felix Salmon of Reuters doesn’t like that Business Insider’s Dan Frommer has taken a trip to Spain sponsored by Samsung so that he can report on Samsung’s products.

Salmon writes, “For one thing, Frommer’s not just scrounging up whatever’s necessary to get him to the conference and report. He’s was flown over ‘in posh business class,‘ which almost certainly means posh hotels and expensive jamón iberico as well. Samsung is doing its utmost to buy his goodwill: why is he letting them get away with it?

“On top of that, Samsung is loving the ubiquitous disclaimer — it provides fantastic free marketing for them in every post. Frommer might think he’s somehow neutralizing the junket by disclosing it; in fact he’s giving Samsung vast amounts of exactly what they want most.

“Most tellingly of all, Samsung isn’t really ‘sponsoring’ Frommer at all — especially not if, as seems logical and as Barret reports, other bloggers at the conference are getting the same deal and not disclosing it. Sponsorship involves a trade of some description: we give you money, you give us some kind of ad space or exposure. If Samsung is getting nothing explicit in return, then it must be getting something implicit instead.”

Read more here.

Failure to disclose freebies like this is very bad; disclosing them, however, isn’t much better. So the best solution is to simply refuse to take them.