In a questionable display of journalism ethics, Macworld’s Mac 991 columnist Chris Breen has dedicated a series of online reports to upgrading his mother’s iMac as a means of expensing a family trip.
“This is so excellent, an excited Breen said. “See, it suddenly hit me that if I write about upgrading my mother’s iMac, I can write the whole trip off as a business expense!
“Breen, you magnificent bastard!” Breen lauded himself.
“What’s that, Christopher?” Breen’s mother called from the other room.
“Nothing, Mom! Heh-heh-heh!”
“I don’t like Christopher spending so much time indoors on the computer,” Breen’s mother said. “He should be outside playing with the other computing professionals in the fresh air.”
Asked what she thought of her son’s plan to be reimbursed by Macworld for his travel expenses, she replied “Ooh, I don’t know… Is that OK? Christopher’s always been such a good boy… except when he was very little and he’d put things in his mouth. I told him he shouldn’t do that, but he wouldn’t listen to his mother! Well… he was only a few months old…”
At dinner later with his mother and daughter, Breen made sure to spend several moments discussing his mother’s iMac and then made a big scene of picking up the tab.
“I’ll get this, Mom!” Breen loudly announced.
He then quietly tucked the receipt into his wallet with several others that he planned to file with his expense report.
“What?” a defensive Breen asked when questioned later about the incident. “We talked about business.”
“What?”