not at all, if I was in a business where I was making cakes, and you were a reviewer of confectionery goods. I could give you a cake, for free before anybody else had one so you could have time to sit down and properly formulate your opinion on my delicious new cake.

I could then, for the sake of balanced reviews, and free publicity tell you not to release the review until a day before my cakes are put into the local bakery. We both win, I get my free publicity and you keep your job going and get a free cake while you're at it.

However if you broke our trust and released an early review I could turn around and think 'well I'm not giving him a free cake, he's just going to break our trust and shaft all of the other publications/ my cake, I just won't let him have any more cakes'

you're still perfectly free afterwards to go out and buy my cake and write your opinion on the cake, it's just you will have to mess about writing it when other publications will just be clicking 'upload' or whatever. and the money will come out of your publication's budget. And cake fans won't be as inclined to read your review because it doesn't have the latest cake in.

So no it's not blackmail it's just a recognition of trust and publicity for both parties.


it's also a very strange allegory that makes me want to go and eat some cake.