As someone who grew up in New England, I'm a big Dunkin' Donuts fan. I'm not a coffee drinker (I'm a tea guy), but I love their donuts and their other foods. One of their classic donut alternatives is the Dunkin' Munchkin, a small, round donut that would be the hole in a regular donut if they didn't take it out (though it looks a lot thicker than that hole would be). It's a neat, bite-sized donut, and you can eat several of them at one sitting.
Katie Couric likes them too. The CBS Evening News anchor mentioned on her blog that she loves the little donuts, and (you guessed it) someone at Dunkin Donuts sent her boxes and boxes of them, along with a ton of coffee to wash them down. And now everyone is up in arms over it, calling it unethical that she didn't send the donuts back.
Should Katie give the donuts back? Or can we just say that she didn't mean to get free donuts, and now that she did, big deal? It's going to be shared with her coworkers and it's a minor thing and we shouldn't be up in arms over it?
11-21-2006 @11:19AM rainey said... Who cares? She was a completely inappropriate choice to do the news and no one takes her seriously anyway.
Let the Twinkie keep her Munchkins.
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11-21-2006 @11:38AM Kevin said... I don't understand why America cares about this. It's marketing. It happens every day, every hour, every second. And it's donuts for Heaven's sake. It's not like she said she thinks Harvard is the best school and now her kids have been accepted without applying. If Duncan wishes to send ME free donuts, they may contact me through the website listed here. Oh, and I take my coffee black, thank you very much.
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11-21-2006 @1:56PM monkeypo said... seriously? people are angry because a well-known person got something for free? it's not as if this never happens. ever heard of the oscar gift bags? no one complains about those, and they can be worth tens of thousands of dollars for people that weren't even nominated.
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11-21-2006 @12:11PM Kate said... Thank you, Kevin for being the voice of reason this morning -- and a funny one, at that.
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11-21-2006 @12:09PM Sofia said... As a journalist, you may not accept any freebies (news outlets/papers have their varying policies on this). Although unsolicited, she shouldn't have accepted, and hopefully she shared with the rest of the newsroom.
Not that I accept Katie Couric as a real journalist, she's more like a celebrity.
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11-21-2006 @12:57PM Crosius said... Wait, people are worried about the ethics of a journalist accepting unsolicited donut holes?
Where is all this outrage over other unethical journalism behaviours like credulous repetition of state-sanctioned lies to the public, the fair-and-balanced big lies, etc?
Priorities, people.
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11-21-2006 @12:21PM Hawk said... Did anyone ever complain when Rosie O'Donnell would say, "wow, i really like krispy kreme donuts" and suddenly she'd be deluged in them?
No jokes intended - I used to watch her show (gasp!) and that sort of thing happened all the time. it turned into, "hey, I'll say I like stuff and see if we can get companies to send a ton of it for all you audience members!" *grimace* *grimace* *pushes button that plays a line from The Who's 'Tommy'*
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11-21-2006 @12:21PM Brian said... While it's certainly an easy marketing opportunity for Dunkin' Donuts, let's face it.. it's just doughnuts! Amateur Gourmet gets a free white truffle dinner from Alain Ducasse, the writer/artist of PvP webcomic gets free software from developers after he says he bought a Mac. It happens and people need to get over it. I'm sure if my blog gained some popularity I might be getting offers for free stuff.
I doubt she was shilling for free doughnuts, but if someone at Dunkin' Donuts made a shrewd move and got a little free publicity, why should she be punished for it? Why is it that we pay more attention to this, but seem to ignore occasions when lobbyists take senators out for trips and vacations just so they'll think of them?
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11-21-2006 @1:23PM Shannon said... Good Lord, it's not like she begged for them! It was a gift because they knew she liked them, people. Get a grip!
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11-21-2006 @2:05PM Eric said... As a general guideline, people wishing to avoid the appearance of unethical behavior, without being impolite, will generally accept gifts that have only nominal value. With respect to Couric's salary, and keeping in mind her possible capacity to eat munchkins, I doubt the gift could possibly be considered to have any monetary value.
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11-21-2006 @4:24PM Jumper said... Hey you know she probably should have packed up the doughnuts or munchkins or whatever and sent them to Africa for all the kids that Madonna didn't adopt.
I can't believe people are up in arms over her hips getting bigger from free food. Don't they have better things to do, like complain about Sandra Lee or Rachel Ray on the Food Network.
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11-21-2006 @11:07PM dlz said... i can't understand why anyone cares. if a journalist hitches a ride from a press conference with a lobyist does that color their reportage.
and as for dunkin donuts... i have yet to find one anywhere that didn't taste stale, no matter the time of day. i am beginning to suspect that the majority of american who like donuts don't know what an honest, fresh donut tastes like. much the same way that folks who like colas are stunned by the flavor of a cola made from suger (they way they used to be made) instead of corn syrup.
bah!
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11-22-2006 @8:47AM calamari said... Hey, let's complain about Katie Couric blatantly pandering to the "plugger" component of the audience by claiming to like Dunkin' Donuts' most popular food product.
She's a skinny celebrity who lives and works in NY City. Do we seriously believe she's ever been in a Dunkin' Donuts?
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