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> Why should any corporation let you visit their premises without suitable assurances? Correct me if I am wrong please, but it sounds like you are saying it's

> Why should any corporation let you visit their premises without suitable assurances? Correct me if I am wrong please, but it sounds like you are saying it's okay to trust corporations who are the subjects of media scrutiny to be the 'gatekeepers' of information, setting ground rules and defining what may or may not go into a news article. This is a horrifically bad idea if you care about journalistic integrity. No harm in the corporation asking for that level of control, but I do not believe savvy journalists would accept. It is their (or their editor's) call to make, they must decide what the story is, and where the public interest lies. Fair point about Nikon though, I think if you have a top-secret part of your factory that's just got to be permanently off-limits. Why risk it?

chrisseaton 8y ago
> No harm in the corporation asking for that level of control, but I do not believe savvy journalists would accept. But at some point the tech companies will just say 'well then we don't want to interact with any journalists'. It seems today that tech companies certainly don't need journalists to help spread new feature announcements. I don't know why they bother talking to journalists at all already?
- mpclark 8y ago
  You are correct. They largely don't talk now.
joshvm 8y ago
My comment was specifically with regard to physically entering offices. In that situation I think it's reasonable to ask people to sign an NDA if they're likely to wander around sensitive areas. The actual issue, as highlighted by some other comments, is how sweeping the NDAs can be. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how testable these things are in court, but some of the clauses are so absurdly general that it would be almost impossible not to break them [1, 2]. There are valid reasons for showing people things they can't talk about. Even with an NDA, it's a strong statement of trust. You can also use it as a tool to build hype about an unreleased product, or to improve your relationship with the media. Who are journalists going to want to visit? The company that shows them cool toys, or the company that shows them meeting rooms and cubicles? [1] https://cananian.livejournal.com/46914.html https://cananian.livejournal.com/46914.html [2] https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/01/does-googles-non-disclosure-agreement-with-employees-overreach-guest-blog-post.htm https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/01/does-googles-n...

chrisseaton 8y ago

> No harm in the corporation asking for that level of control, but I do not believe savvy journalists would accept. But at some point the tech companies will just say 'well then we don't want to interact with any journalists'. It seems today that tech companies certainly don't need journalists to help spread new feature announcements. I don't know why they bother talking to journalists at all already?

mpclark 8y ago
You are correct. They largely don't talk now.

joshvm 8y ago

My comment was specifically with regard to physically entering offices. In that situation I think it's reasonable to ask people to sign an NDA if they're likely to wander around sensitive areas. The actual issue, as highlighted by some other comments, is how sweeping the NDAs can be. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how testable these things are in court, but some of the clauses are so absurdly general that it would be almost impossible not to break them [1, 2]. There are valid reasons for showing people things they can't talk about. Even with an NDA, it's a strong statement of trust. You can also use it as a tool to build hype about an unreleased product, or to improve your relationship with the media. Who are journalists going to want to visit? The company that shows them cool toys, or the company that shows them meeting rooms and cubicles? [1] https://cananian.livejournal.com/46914.html https://cananian.livejournal.com/46914.html [2] https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/01/does-googles-non-disclosure-agreement-with-employees-overreach-guest-blog-post.htm https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/01/does-googles-n...