Much has been made of the ethics of bloggers who receive compensation -- usually in the form of demo units and trial versions of products -- in exchange for reviewing those products, often with the implicit understanding that the review is a positive one. These questions prompted an FTC investigation, and last fall the agency revised their
formal guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials to include bloggers or other "word-of-mouth" marketers. The Interactive Agency Bureau maintains that the guidelines are unconstitutional, and is calling for the FTC to
rescind the rules as they apply to bloggers and other online outlets. The latest casualty? An intern at TechCrunch asked for a MacBook Air in exchange for a post. In the wake of this revelation, TechCrunch fired the intern and issued a
formal apology. To his credit, the intern has posted his own
mea culpa.
posted by shiu mai baby
on Feb 5, 2010 -
69 comments
WarIsReal Amazing reading from a fellow millitary blogger who is currently undergoing some high stress as a result of
PTSD and is blogging his prescriptions and counseling sessions.
posted by JJBotter
on May 21, 2005 -
33 comments
Remember this? It has won recognition as "Best Interactive Viral" in the
Viral Awards. With all the viral
1 and stealth
2 marketing campaigns, comment spam, astroturfing
3, and other tools that marketeers are using to infiltrate the Brave New(ish) World of blog, we sometimes forget that we also have the power to do good, so "
you know, like, reclaim the streets, or re-frame the conversation, or some damn thing". Words of wisdom from our not-so-subservient chicken.
[and, a bit more...]
posted by taz
on Mar 26, 2005 -
20 comments
Are Blogs to Blame? Tom Regan, Associate Editor of the Christian Science monitor wrote an interesting
piece referencing the latest findings of
the Feb 2005 Harris Poll showing that more and more Americans (64%) *still* think that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al-Qaida. Tom's piece proposes that too many Americans are getting their "news" from sources -- including blogs -- that are tainted with right-wing opinion. Tom proposes that blogs share a large responsibility for confusing readers and blurring the lines between news and opinion. On this same topic, last week Editorial Cartoonist Ted Rall wrote
an Op/Ed piece last week on blogs that primarily talks about the dangers of the right-wing blogger "lynch mob." Does the sphere of right-wing blogs far outweigh the sphere of influence of left-wing blogs? And is this something that is worrisome? Are blogs a danger to further polarizing public opinion? What do you think?
posted by popvulture
on Mar 4, 2005 -
52 comments
Web of Influence Every day, millions of online diarists, or “bloggers,” share their opinions with a global audience. Drawing upon the content of the international media and the World Wide Web, they weave together an elaborate network with agenda-setting power on issues ranging from human rights in China to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. What began as a hobby is evolving into a new medium that is changing the landscape for journalists and policymakers alike. Hmm. Big Talk or should I get a clue & with the program ? Decisions, decisions....
posted by y2karl
on Nov 4, 2004 -
15 comments
Dan Rather: : "If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story. Any time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this is what went wrong and how it went wrong.'" (reg. req.)
Andrew Sullivan: "Memo to Rather: you can't break that story, because someone else in pajamas already did. Check the frequency, Kenneth. You are so far from being out front on this, you are leagues behind in the dust. Have you heard of the Internet? You can find it on that weird machine in your office they call a computer."
Me: Is anyone else astonished as I am at how far CBS seems to have its head up its ass WRT news media in the 21st century?
posted by ericost
on Sep 16, 2004 -
128 comments
Blogger moxie.nu acuses another blogger of identity theft . The other blogger,
moxiepop.com, fires back,
saying she got harassed by moxie.nu's readers and that
she had never seen moxie.nu's site before. Another blogger
goes on the offensive and accuses moxiepop of imitating moxie.nu. Comments start flying on moxie.nu and are ultimately closed by the host. Some other blogs step in, supporting moxiepop (
1,
2,
3) and supporting moxie.nu (
1,
2,
3).
Tim Blair chimes in,
Andrea Harris has a few words,
Jim Treacher calls for some Moxie Boxing, and
Kevin Parrott adds Rockem Sockem Moxies. A delightful train wreck for all to see.
posted by jonah
on Jun 12, 2003 -
46 comments
pickupyourowndamnsocks.com. What would you do if you found out that your significant other was keeping an anonymous, but very public, journal of things about you that drive them crazy?
posted by jonah
on Oct 7, 2002 -
150 comments
Best British Blog. The Guardian has launched a competition to find the best British weblog. Is this another case of the mainstream media not really understanding what blogging is all about?
posted by crayfish
on Jul 18, 2002 -
18 comments
Anti-Idiotarian Coalition/United Blogging Nation? It seems all this talk of UN bias has has some bloggers so frustrated and angry that they feel it's time to band together as a political force, and the beginnings of a movement are
taking shape. Legal actions, media attention, and even a full fledged political party are all ideas that have been bandied about. They already have a couple of legal eagles and prominent
blogging figures offering services/resources. All they need now are t-shirts.
Oh wait, they have
those too. One Nation, under Blog...
posted by mikhail
on May 2, 2002 -
15 comments
What is AWCA? "It’s an illness that can strike at any time, that can affect even the most sensible and rational blogger. It strikes slowly at first — a glance at
The Nation or
Village Voice, a quick peek at what the Berkeley City Council is up to this week — but can develop into a full-bore obsession. Minutes trolling on Indymedia turn into hours, ridiculed websites make their way to the Windows Favorites list, until finally one cannot bear to turn off the computer before seeing the words
quagmire, proportionality, Arab street, root causes, and
“terrorists” (in quotation marks only)."
My name is Steve, and I suffer from AWCA.
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Dec 25, 2001 -
29 comments
Are you ready for
The Galaxy Girls -- the world's first group weblog written by drag queens? I count nine girls participating so far, and more are on the way. Diamonds, Vicodin, Strom Thurmond -- whatever it takes to get ready for the next show!
posted by bjennings
on Oct 16, 2001 -
2 comments
dack kills his blog "
. I want to spend more time making short films, playing golf, and reading books. But what I really want to do is make computers, and specifically the Web, a much smaller part of my life."
I guess there's no enjoyment left in poking fun at dot.com vanity in this day and age...
posted by lagado
on May 21, 2001 -
23 comments
One wo/man; many, many votes. From the seventh circle of hell comes the second-last sign of the apocalypse; the voting form for the bloggies. I know which site I voted for... you're reading the damn thing right now. Go MeFi!
posted by Neale
on Jan 22, 2001 -
38 comments
StorTroopers! With their giant heads and interesting range of fashion accessories, these little buggers are taking the UK blogging world by, um, storm.
posted by Foaf
on Jan 11, 2001 -
11 comments
A student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
wrote a paper on Weblogs and Journals, dissceting the thoughts and blogs of a few people. Very interesting paper, in my opinion (not because I am mentioned very briefly :) and worthy of some discussion and dissection.
posted by Arvid
on Dec 13, 2000 -
14 comments
More dating webloggers. Online journallers, really:
Stephanie polled her readers as to whether she should go out with
Mike. They voted overwhelmingly in favor, and now she's traveled from Detroit to Columbus to meet him. Everyone's watching with bated breath. Well, every one of their readers, anyway ... but
five thousand people voted in her poll.
posted by dhartung
on Nov 17, 2000 -
22 comments
Olympic Bloggers!
Follow up to the
recent post about the IOC's ban on website communications by athletes. The above is from the
IOC website. It's Survivor meets Big Brother meets Chariots of Fire!
posted by rschram
on Sep 6, 2000 -
0 comments
Are
Jason and
Heather secretly the same person, or is there some other reason (that escapes me) that his July 6th and her July 7th entries start out with exactly the same paragraph?
posted by lia
on Jul 9, 2000 -
30 comments
The Great Blog-Off is coming- so far 8 bloggers will be madly competing for 24 hours to find the best links on the web on an as-yet-unknown topic. A lesson in futility or potentially dirty, self-absorbed fun? Discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by wisdom
on May 9, 2000 -
5 comments
Orangina is the new orange All right, I tried to blog this and keep finding dead ends. Can someone please point me to permanent bookmarks of conversations (i.e., monologues) on A-list blogs like powazek.com and
n-list ones like psionic.nu declaring that "[colour] is the new
orange"? ¶ (At the Toronto bloggeur f2f, we engaged in ironic
discussion of the fact that our blogs are not on the A-list and never will be, though I argued that merely contributing to Metafilter gives us exposure among the A-list crowd in effect, a social-climber/arriviste argument for which I do not apologize. Miss
Emmajane wasn't present for the ironic part, however. I am familiar with the argument that one who blogs as a ploy for readership is a failure. I agree. But blogging and being the only reader is, frankly, onanistic. I speak as someone whose blog is linked to by a grand total of three others. I'm not sure there are ten people on earth who regularly read what I write. I'm OK with that, but I'd love to be more...
popular! Discuss. But give me the
orange link first.)
posted by joeclark
on May 1, 2000 -
23 comments
Cassie and Jason have engaged me better than any soap opera, movie, journal, weblog, anything. Cassie's reports about her husband's near-fatal car accident and his creeping recovery are, well, moving. She writes with clarity and simplicity and selflessness. Her letters make my eyes tear, then I grin and can't hold it back. I flinch, wince, sigh, laugh. The hair on my neck bristles. I want to squeeze that lovely woman and carry that man around like a king.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Apr 27, 2000 -
3 comments
