HBS prof Mary Tripsas, also a New York Times contributor, took a junket that conflicted with the Times’ guidelines about not accepting free trips—and wrote about it.

As the terrific NYT-watchdog blog NYTPicker details, Tripsas accepted a junket to the 3M headquarters in Minnesota—and then wrote a gushing Times Sunday Business column.

What Prof. Tripas doesn’t mention is that on November 12, she and several other innovation researchers from around the country flew to St. Paul for a day-long briefing on the center, their travel and accommodations provided by the company — in direct violation of NYT rules.

(She should have at least chosen Bacardi or something. I mean…Minnesota?)

Now the Times may ax her!

But wait—Tripsas says she wasn’t invited because she writes for the Times, but because of her privileged Harvard status. 3M didn’t even know she wrote for the Times!

She says. Though admittedly this seems rather fanciful. Given that her Times affiliation is proudly noted in her HBS biography.

That said, the Times has a problem here: Increasingly, it won’t pay for people to go on reporting trips. So it can either have less-informed reportage in the paper, or it can compromise its principles.

Sigh.