If you're a blogger and you're really upset about this, you're telling me that you're now pissed that you have to now disclose all of your back-room dealings, and that doesn't instill much confidence in your reporting.
Bullshit. This is akin to saying that if you're upset about the government running illegal wiretaps and eavesdropping on your cell calls, it must be because you have something to hide.
Perhaps we just don't like the idea of the government butting into one corner of the media world and spewing arbitrary and ambiguous guidelines that carry heavy fines if violates, despite the fact that it's not really clear how to avoid violating them.
Of course it's clear how to avoid violating them - use a guideline compliance checker. Me, I like GuiPli, from Comline Systems - it scans my bamk acount and social network inbox, looking for freebies or even direct payments from companies whose products or services I have blogged about. If it finds any, a little red light goes on, and I add a disclaimer like this:
Note: the author has received compensation from ComLine Systems or its PR company for this article.
You don't like the government butting into the media world? Fine, let's go back to the days of Payola, allow advertisers to make blatantly false claims without giving you any grounds for legal recourse (you'd think you could sue, but that really depends on the government's agreement that a tort has been committed) and just toss out any guidelines about keeping advertising and editorial separate. Screw the consumers - they may have a legitimate interest in knowing whether the author of a gushing article got compensated for their glowing words or not, but let's face it, th less they think, the more they spend!
Bullshit. This is akin to saying that if you're upset about the government running illegal wiretaps and eavesdropping on your cell calls, it must be because you have something to hide.
Perhaps we just don't like the idea of the government butting into one corner of the media world and spewing arbitrary and ambiguous guidelines that carry heavy fines if violates, despite the fact that it's not really clear how to avoid violating them.