By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

There is no such thing as a free trip to Japan, either.

It isn't always easy for journalists to deal with the lunch thing. You spend some time talking with people for a story, local style, they want to feed you. When we say no thank you, folks get all sad.

But free trips to Japan are a lot easier to turn down than a plate of Aunty Mildred's lemon bars.

There are so many reasons why the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau has no business paying for a crew from a local television news station to go along on a promotional trip to Japan. There are so many reasons why a news-gathering organization shouldn't accept such an invitation.

For starters, journalists are supposed to be watchdogs for the community. When the government crosses a line, we're supposed to nose it out and give a loud "Grrrrr, woof!" One of those things that usually sets the dogs barking is, classically, free trips to Japan for other-than-the-obvious-players.

This whole thing was nothing like having embedded reporters in Iraq. You can't buy commercial flights to the Iraqi desert. You pretty much have to work with the military. Far as I know, you can still book flights to Narita without help from the government.

The news organization is going to reimburse HVCB for the cost of the trip, but that doesn't make questions about the arrangement go away.

Isn't HVCB supposed to be promoting Hawai'i to the world? It sure seems like this was an attempt to promote the HVCB to Hawai'i.

It's not even as if Gov. Linda Lingle's trip is big news. Every governor does the tourism promotion trip to Japan. The county mayors do the Japanese sister city tours all the time. Former Kaua'i Mayor Maryanne Kusaka made numerous trips to Japan, where she'd entertain the crowd with a hula at the drop of a hat.

It's just another "what the governor did during summer vacation" story with photo ops of meals with dignitaries of varying rank. Here's me at the hotel. Here's me at dinner. Here's me at the mall.

Big news would be if one of these "Please come to Hawai'i. We're safe. No terrorists. No war. No SARS. And Waikiki looks so totally different you have to check it out again" trips brought a hefty spike in arrival numbers and/or visitor spending.

Aunty Mildred with her lemon bars is just trying to do the Aunty thing, not influence the story. When it's the HVCB, it's trying to get its message across. It wants the taxpayers of Hawai'i to see what it is doing, particularly the good stuff.

Maybe if HVCB did a really stellar job in boosting Hawai'i tourism the organization would get the positive media coverage it covets. It's not about spin. It's about results.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.