First of all, his math is wrong (bank error in your favor?), second of all does he really need to take a cab.
I wonder if he declares this income?
Yeah. I was thinking the same thing, he could take the subway.
And I'm not going to trash the guy because he did lose his job recently, but this seems kind of shitty to me. The unveiling is what, an hour? maybe two, followed by a little more time to write the blog and you're asking people to send you for an all-expense paid trip to San Diego for the weekend? You don't have someone that you could deputize as the Uni-Watch California dude to cover this for you? Another thing, if you are going to go out there, shouldn't you at least have a meet-and-greet with the people who are fans of your work? The whole, "Uh, yeah maybe, if I'm not way too busy with the other 45 hours in the weekend."
IDK, I read the guy's blog every day, but Lukas doesn't really seem like a guy I'd enjoy hanging out with.
Yeah, not on board with that. He says if the Padres fly him out then it's a conflict of interest. Is there a conflict if, maybe for another event, some benefactor pays his way? That could also be a potential conflict.
I know that it's the guy's job and I guess he has some sort of ethics, but at the end of the day, this is a story about about a bunch of men who hit a ball wearing new clothes. Either he'll like the new togs or he won't (more likely the latter), so I'm not sure how this is some weird betrayal of journalistic ethics. I mean, most movie reviewers don't pay their own way into the movie theater. There aren't many sportswriters who write the game stories from a seat that they bought themselves. Same thing with art critics, book critics, etc.
I feel that if Lukas established at the beginning of his piece, "The Padres flew me out to San Diego for the weekend and put me up in a hotel AND paid my cab fare", then that is okay. Transparency is what's needed here.
EDIT: apparently Lukas made his money in under two hours of his post. Good for him?