I read an article on Gawker today that said New York Times reporter Raymond Hernandez, who covers members of Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, is dating Shrita Sterlin, the communications director for Rep. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn…and I got to thinking: Is it ethical for a reporter to date a PR pro if the reporter covers the same topic(s) the flack is pitching?

Earlier this week, Forbes wrote an article calling out Ted Murphy of Izea Entertainment for paying bloggers to write good reviews of his clients’ products and services. The first line of the article even refers to Ted as a “scam artist”. So what are these “scams” that Ted pulls? He engages bloggers to write reviews for clients like Kmart, Hewlett-Packard, SeaWorld, Sears and Dirt Devil, and he pays them up to [...]