First, it was reporters who couldn’t even spell Colombia right, or bother to check the name of LP exec Judy Slatyer. Now it’s another scandal-loving story about Thomas Kohnstamm and Lonely Planet in Melbourne’s Sunday Age: A Guide Delusion Makes It Lonely at the Top.

I had a sinking feeling after my phone interview with Peter Munro. It was a good twenty minutes of him fishing for me to say Lonely Planet was hypocritical. There was also some back-and-forth about whether the only way to properly review a hotel is to stay in the hotel (with questions actually starting with, “So would you say that…?”). The latter I can almost agree with, but of course a flat statement like that is not really accurate. The former, though, I just cannot say.

I spent a lot of time in my phone interview saying, in fact, that I thought LP generally has great intentions, and maybe it had written its freebie policy without a loophole in mind. And executives have been very responsive to my comments on the freebies issue, which is more than I can say for any other employer I’ve ever had.

But because I was uncooperative and my rational response doesn’t make a great story, Munro just resorted to quoting my statements on this blog–without even attributing them, so Age readers can’t come here and read my full comments. Worse, it’s in a larger context that makes it sound like I have taken freebies while on the job with LP, which is completely untrue.

Tacky, lazy journalism.

I may work in an industry that has its share of ethical issues, but I feel pretty good about the work I do. Especially when I consider that I’m not an ax-grinding newspaper reporter.