NYTimes tech columnist David Pogue has been accused of a journalism no-no, engaging in conflicts of interest. Critics have ranged from his techy counterparts to even his paper’s public editor. Pogue is criticized for reviewing new products in his popular column and also writing books about some of them. The NYTPicker just blogged about a podcast Pogue was interviewed in Sunday when he admitted that his “Missing Manual” series might be a conflict of interest but that other tech writers were guilty of the same practice. What’s more is that Pogue chose to defend himself by saying he was “not a reporter.”

Here’s some of what was said:

Leo Laporte: Well that’s – and that’s the question David. If you were a blogger – I mean, are you a blogger for the New York Times? I mean if you – I mean you have a blog. If you were a blogger, nobody would say this, it would say – or an opinion – let’s not say blogger, let’s say a columnist, an opinion person. Nobody says to David Brooks why is it that you aren’t a fan of President Obama, actually I guess he is, but I mean you are not a columnist, you are a reporter or are you not?

David Pogue: No, no, you know by the way I’m suddenly realizing this is all just making it all worse for myself but I just – I got it that – the haters are going to hate even more – .

Leo Laporte: You know, you can’t win with the haters.

David Pogue: I am – I am not a reporter, I have never to journalism school, I don’t know what it means to bury the lede – okay, I do know what it means, but I’m not a reporter, I’ve been an opinion columnist…

Leo Laporte: Right.

David Pogue: …my entire career. I express opinions, I try to entertain and inform.

Read the whole transcript of the podcast

NYTimes Public Editor Clark Hoyt brings up this point about Pogue in his column:

His multiple interests and loyalties raise interesting ethical issues in this new age when individual journalists can become brands of their own, stars who seem to transcend the old rules that sharply limited outside activity and demanded an overriding obligation to The Times and its readers.

Pogue is a columnist. Unlike Bob Steele, a professor at DePauw University and a scholar at Poynter, I don’t see a problem with him writing books about what he has given reviews on. He is a tech expert. I rather that he would write the books since he has the expertise. It would be kind of limiting for him and punishment for his readers for him to not write about something in his column because he is writing a book on it. Published journalists write blog posts and columns about subjects they have books on all the time.

I agree that he should just have to have  a disclosure statement with articles that he has books about just so people can know the facts and judge what they want to take away. A new survey shows that less that 30% of Americans believe that the media is accurate. Everyone – even a brand like Pogue – has to be held accountable. The NYT has now created a policy that forces Pogue to disclose his book projects when reviewing a product. Pogue also has a disclosure statement on the Web site.