More on transparency and journalism ethics
Over at Ari Slogan's site about citizen journalism, there's an interesting post on a recent Boston Globe article about blogging and product endorsements.
Of particular interest is that the Globe article has triggered some online debate about transparency (and about the Globe's accuracy.) But, as Ari points out, none of the debate is happening at the Globe's site because the newspaper doesn't have a comment function.
Take a look at the article, Ari's site and the links he has posted. You'll see that it seems the blogging world is dividing into two different camps. One group sees its primary mission as editorial, and takes steps to avoid business relationships that would threaten credibility. The second group is less interested in reputation than it is in revenue. That group is much like the bottom feeders of B2B publishing that I've written about here and here.
I put my blog in that first group. If you missed it before, here's my post about how and why I turned down a product endorsement deal.