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Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts

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Ms. Jenn May 22, 2009 8:46 PM GMT If a blogger receives samples from any company, there is no breach of ethics. Why the FTC is budding in here, I have no clue. Is the FTC going to go after magazines who get thousands of samples a year sent to them? It is up to the blogger to write a fair review, and if readers disagree, then they should stop reading the blog and use word of mouth to discredit the blog, the same way readers do with magazines. The FTC needs to back off.
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molly May 22, 2009 7:16 PM GMT if a company were to send me an item to review after use, they will get an honest review. It may or may not be what they are looking for, and unless they get an agreement from the blogger to give a good review regardless, then what is the problem here? most commercials on tv are not done by actual users, they are paid actors who will do the script, period.
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Mike Cherenson May 22, 2009 5:18 PM GMT Blogola amounts to pay-for-play in the social media space, and principles of ethical public relations practice require that any exchange of value intended to generate or influence editorial coverage be disclosed. Undisclosed value exchanges violate the principles of accuracy, truth and transparency embodied in the Public Relations Society of Americaâ??s Code of Ethics, which applies to PRSAâ??s 32,000 members and, by extension, all professional communicators. In short, blogola, like pay for play, frustrates communications transparency and impedes informed decision making in our democratic society.Michael Cherenson is Chair & CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, the worldâ??s largest association for professional communicators.
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Chuck Gaffney May 22, 2009 5:05 PM GMT I review video games on my blog that I get for free, but it's a non bias review. I originally reviewed games on my own and the popularity of my blog thankfully got me in that position. This is an utter violation of free speech and their should be a class action suit against the FTC for this! This was probably started by some dumb, fat, winy American consumer who was upset that a random blogger mistyped something about a product that they were too stupid to go to the source to. These pathetic excuses for consumers or just people in general are the kinds of people that complain at fast food joints about the number of ice cubes in their drink or who'd return a jigsaw puzzle angrily claiming "it's broken." It's so sad that these mental midgets still have so much clout today and are getting their way at every normal person's expense.
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Clif May 22, 2009 1:55 AM GMT Under what legal theory does the FTC get to regulate personal web logs?
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Jeff May 22, 2009 12:21 AM GMT I say to regulate this at all is a violation of free speech. I don't care if it's "paid" free speech, "straight from the heart" free speech or "scratch my back I'll scratch yours" free speech. I am smart enough to know the difference and prefer to make my own decisions. I see the ultimate result of any new rules or regulations just helping the "big guys" catch up and run all the indie bloggers out of business.
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Mitch May 21, 2009 10:04 PM GMT Actually, Google doesn't go after the post; it goes after the blog. I know three people who lost their PR, and two of them only had paid reviews on their site. The third guy also had paid advertising, which Google doesn't like unless you can give it the nofollow attribute.
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MTI72 May 21, 2009 9:08 PM GMT Figures, so much for freedom of speech! If a blogger gets a "freebie" and hates it, is it ok if they tell their readers that the product stinks? Probably not, after all...they'll get sued for slander. Corp. America and the Gov. need to correct the issues already at hand (fraud in the banking system, selling MBS's that are worthless on teh free/open market and correcting credit card abuse; just to name a few minor issues), not looking for new and interesting ways to annoy the general public. A blog is an OPINION, and as a consumer, I treat it as such...I don't need the FTC to "protect" me.
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Lori May 21, 2009 8:53 PM GMT I don't understand why it is okay for radio stations and TV networks, etc., to be paid to put ads on every few minutes during their programming and not okay for a blogger to advertise something they like on their blog, whether they received a benefit from it or not. That is, if they are being truthful about how they feel about the product, of course.
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Xavier May 21, 2009 6:53 PM GMT Wow...Another poorly written mainstream media article. Way to lead off with a completely irrelevant example. Lumping all bloggers/blogs together is ridiculous. There are bigger fish to fry- what about all of the free publicity Fox news affiliates provide to American Idol or the Universal Records' artists appearing on the Tonight show? No disclosure there.
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