Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor

The Federal Trade Commission, it seems, has determined that bloggers aren't journalists, or should at least be treated differently.

The commission, in the process of re-examining the disclosure rules for their truth-in-advertising guides, are now calling out bloggers as a potential issue. The commission says it is looking into the legitimacy of blogger opinion and whether access to review product influences their write-ups. They don't, however, seem to be concerned over similar practices in the print and mainstream media.

Instead of relying on specific rules, the FTC's guides use a set of examples to lay out issues that they have identified. In talking about the importance of disclosure of material connections between the endorser and the seller, the guide uses an example aimed directly at online video game journalism.

In seeking to delineate between a professional writer and a blogger, the FTC approaches a slippery slope that could very easily end with the government deciding who is and who isn't a journalist.

Equally troubling is the coverage of this issue by the New York Times, which seems to almost deliberately not get it. In a Sunday story entitled "When a Blogger Voices Approval, a Sponsor May Be Lurking", the New York Times reports on the issue making it clear that unlike journalists, some bloggers are for sale:

"But unlike postings in most journalism outlets or independent review sites, most companies can be assured that there will not be a negative review: if she does not like a product, she simply does not post anything about it."

/// Well, i'd have no trouble receiving free stuff to review instead of having to rummage around on the sale shelves or blag ex-rental titles from my friendly video store owning lesbian or entering numerous competitions to win something, anything game related so i'd have something to blog about. This article is just about snobbery from those who don't get free cinema tickets so they can review a film, or those who don't get the free samples or pre-release game code, the sort of writer who has been stuck in a small crappy office for years grinding away secretly hating the free wild abandon of the small rat like creatures that are called bloggers.

I have, for better or worse, been spewing forth my badly structured grammatically incorrect squit for over 10 yrs now in various guises on the interwebs and in that time i have seen the rise of the super game sites (kotaku, destructoid etc etc) who are nothing but paid puppets of the corporations and yet the commenters suck it all up as the gospel truth waving vigorously whatever console flag they align themselves too, because we all know you can't own both consoles, you sickos!

Nothing ever changes, and critics, whether it be food, film, game or adult sex toy will always be swayed by getting free perks, hell, why would they do the 'job' otherwise? Me, i write and comment because i have a love of gaming and it's safer than doing a faceplant off a tabletop jump.. or that could be effect and cause.. whatever.. tomorrow, i review my Zero Punctuation t-shirt.. -heheh-

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