The front page of today's Wall Street Journal exclaimed that the
U.S. Seeks to Restrict Gift Giving To Bloggers. The article examines the ethics of bloggers accepting gifts, monetary or other, from companies in exchange for positive product reviews. The FTC has a new initiative at making such actions against the law unless the writer discloses their relationship with the company in the article. Is this a good or bad thing for bloggers? How about for consumers?
"It is a particularly controversial issue online, where the traditional division between editorial and advertising found in newspapers and magazines is harder to maintain," explains the article. I couldn't agree more. News outlets have, in large, lost the respect of the general public. The new wave of online media will never hold any clout with the public if they don't find the content to be objective and unbiased. These are the fundamentals our profession was built on, and it won't survive without them.
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