Yesterday I spoke with an upcoming reporter named Jason Hahn from Northwestern Universities Journalism program at Medill, one of the nations better J-Schools. I have an open door policy for students, and even lecture from time to time as without my college experiences at Temple University, and lots of mentors, I never would have had the chances that are before me now.
The story angle was simple. Forrester had issued a report about paid blogging and truth in posting. The Federal Trade Commission in turn is considering guidelines that will update an archaic “Truth In Advertising” policy.
I shared my views with Jason, who was kind enough to quote me.
I deplore pay for post. I also detest ghost blogging and as a rule prevent my team from writing original blog posts for our clients. Instead we suggest topics, edit their prose, but insist that the words originate with them. We also work hard to keep clients from “tagging.” No, I don’t mean in the web sense, but in the manner of posting comments on a blog that are aimed at simply linking another brand, usually a competitor to the focus of the story, something which I’ve shared my disdain for with a few leading blog publishers who seem oblivious to the damage that is caused and how all that the “tagging” does is game the search engines.
As one of the pioneers in blogger relations programs, I hate to see a good thing ruined, so I’m not opposed to self regulation, or even FTC guidelines. But the best guidelines are knowing what’s right and wrong. Of late we’ve seen some interactive begin to approach bloggers with links campaigns, asking to change copy, use certain words, really keywords, providing them with coded links that provide token revenue. Those types of programs have no place in “blogger relations” which is really a derivative of media relations where the emphasis is on “relations.” Review programs like the ones we have run for clients very successfully rely upon the objective feedback, candor and insight of the bloggers. Those posts become the equal to a print product review, a side bar to a news story or a feature column, just like we used to see in print.
If the FTC wants to look at Truth in Advertising, I think they need to broaden their net and really look at a broader concept of Truth in Journalism. Every form of media is under attack from some form of “Pay For Play” and it goes way beyond the book “Hit Men” approach that was about the music biz back in the 70’s.