To be friends or not to be friends?

I was struck by the fact that the advice Lillian Ross gives on making friends with the people you write about is in direct contradiction to advice that the legendary rock journalist Lester Bangs gives to young Cameron Crowe in the movie Almost Famous. (Bangs is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Crowe by Patrick Fugit.)

Both points of view seem to make perfect sense. Hmmm. I wonder if one makes more sense, or if two arguments that contradict one another can both be true.