One of the The New York Times’ star tech reporters David Pogue is in a romantic relationship with a VP at The Outcast Agency, Nicki Dugan. And The Daily Beast says there could be a conflict of interest brewing.

According to the story, Pogue has reported on a number of OutCast clients, including some of the big ones that the Daily Beast writes would be “hard to avoid,” like Cisco and Amazon. While he has done so both positively and negatively, he did not disclose the relationship in the stories.

Both Damon Darlin, Pogue’s editor, and Alex Constantinople, CEO of The OutCast Agency, say that Pogue and Dugan spoke with them about the relationship. Still, the article points out a couple of past conflict issues Pogue has been tangled up with.

“What he’s saying is, ‘Just trust me. I don’t need to tell you anything. Just trust me,’” one anonymous in-house tech publicist says. “But hiding this is a mistake. Pretending it doesn’t matter is a mistake. Perception is reality.”

[image via Business Insider]