What to Say, and What Not to Say

Blogging is such a wonderful world for many of us, you can express your thoughts, inform your readers, and voice somewhat expert opinions (depending on your blogging areas) on situations that cross your path, but recently I have found ethics becoming more and more of a complication. Many of my blogger comrades can sympathize with this complication, when to comment on a crazy/outlandish/scintillating event that just occurred or when to hold back?

This is a fine line, you don't want to lose your loyal readership by lacking any writer's integrity, but I find some surprising events transpiring of late in the Sacramento culinary scene and have found myself lead to a roadblock in where to go.

Examples of ethical complications:

Finding out a prominent restaurant in the Sacramento area has a cockroach problem?
Do you write about this, potentially hurting that restaurant and it's reputation for the sake of justifiably informing your readers about what's going on?
Upside: your readers know, makes for great press, and proves that even in Sacramento Front-of-the-House managers need to be acutely aware of their surroundings, and confront situations with more grace than was expressed in this incident.
Downside: public information like that can seriously hurt a restaurant, for long after they've corrected any pest control problems, with Sacramento in such a thriving time for it's restaurants to rant about a bad experience when many other experiences have been great leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

But still the question persists: What to Say, and What Not to Say

Having the event coordinator of a food & wine event call, politely requesting editorial approval or at the very least "a kinder light" in future articles written.
Upside: Promotes a healthier, grateful PR person that will continue to insure that my access and enjoyment are always assured in the future of food & wine events that this organization hosts
Downside: I'm a blogger, a writer, and sometimes even a person with ethics (this is one of those times), I'm not the PR person working for this organization, if I was my outlook would be very different. To ask a member of the press to ensure that the article is favorable is the height of arrogance, I'm not working for you, and in the end this only serves to hurt your organizations purposes in the future, as the following press might not be so kind.
This is the very reason the FTC brought out regulations last year for all bloggers to disclose any monetary gain, or advantage that was given as to not deceive readers.

But still the question persists: What to Say, and What Not to Say

Lastly, knowing information about a chef's behaviors and their impact on their staff. From alleged drug addictions to utter disrespect by a Chef to his/her employees that later creates a hostile workplace and bad reputation, are these things to be blogged about?
Probably not, because once again while they make for great press, lots of great gossip, and potentially a libel lawsuit, but there are always two sides to a story - and will these things actually attribute to the story I'm writing? Maybe, Maybe Not. Ethics are a sticky situation.

At the end of they day I received some great advise from a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and investigative journalist for the SacBee, who told me "It's all about what pertains to the story, sometimes you want to have the public know that captivating piece of information, and other times you know in the end all it will do is BlackBall you from all your access, so is it worth it? Don't pull your punches no matter what anyone says, but make sure that it pertains to the story, and if it doesn't let it go."

This was very helpful in my abilities to write, critique, and analyze situations, restaurants, and people. So hopefully my fellow bloggers, budding critics, and foodie writers alike will find this as helpful as I did.