Jess: I cleared it with the restaurants beforehand and let them know that the writers may or may not write about the restaurant and they will write impartially. I also let all the writers know they should write impartially because the restaurants knew what the deal was.

If Amy is going to hate, Amy is going to hate – Maybe I’ve already lost her friendship. I don’t know why she invited me back to hang out with her at her apartment for the afternoon after she’d already formed an opinion of me. Either way, who cares? I am not living my life to curry her favor. If any of the other writers’ opinions of me are changed by Amy’s post, I’d hope they would come to me for clarification before levying their judgement.

Who knows – maybe Amy and I will be friends some day again. I don’t refute anything she wrote in this post and I consider her to be a pleasant and personable girl. Her motivations may be different than mine (not that it could be discerned by her incessant tweets and status updates when she was up for a Shorty award, but I digress), but she’s a better writer than I am and cuter on camera. I’ll admit, that’s not saying much

“Hagan,” you say, “you just said you’re not trying to curry favor with Amy. What’s this?” I don’t understand how I could ever let someone’s opinion of me change my opinion of them. It doesn’t make sense.

I went out with another writer yesterday and here’s her quote:

“Some 93 Plates participants have accused Hagan of being a media whore, only being in this for the website traffic and publicity, but since he openly admits that these are his motivations, I didn’t have much of a problem with it. Hypocrisy would have been a bigger problem, but he wasn’t pretending that food blogging was part of some nobler goal – he was very straightforward about what he wants from this.”

http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2009/02/best-ny-food-blog.html

ciao!

I’m not as upset as Amy because I always recognized it as a stunt and expected what I got. Also I was happy to go to the wrap party, where I got to meet people I wanted to meet, people who’s blogs I read, and people who I’ve chatted with but never seen in person. I just appreciated that he did the work to put it together.

However, what does really bother me Hagan, is that you are happy about all this negative publicity and proud that you pissed people off and offended them. Sure, it gets traffic, but this traffic will be short-lived. The potential friendships you have lost are way more valuable. Food is about sharing and is worth only half as much in isolation.

And she can write whatever she wants.

I am rethinking my reviews of the places I went, but the fact is that they were really good (bistro les minots and Fornino). I did say that is was part of this project though, so I can’t down myself too much.

The comped meals are problematic as well — how can you write an honest review under those circumstances? And knowing the meals were comped by the restaurant, his assessment that he’d “provided” the free meal and expected something in return is disconcerting.

Hagan’s a great producer, but not a great food writer. Inviting the “blogging elite” gave him more credibility. And by pushing you to write about it, he opened himself up to this criticism.

I wish him the best of luck, but his attitude seems to have irritated the very people he was hoping to court.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

You be my hero!

Heather