A stain for blogging

Some bloggers are taken to be elements of the media; what differentiates them, maybe, is that some have no trouble taking money from a political candidate to say pleasant things. This article is from the Wall Street Journal and concerns Howard Dean and Daily Kos, which gets more traffic in an hour than most blogs get in a lifetime.

(I will not be surprised to learn that this is not an isolated incident.)

Meanwhile, Daily Kos wants a retraction.

Comments

[Steve]

Maybe I'm being simplistic here but really, did anyone assume these 2 sites did not actively promote the Dean campaign? Sure they were unethical as their disclosure is lacking... but so what? It seems there's still an underlying illusion those who tell us the news don't have an agenda.

I'm not sure it amounts to anything more evil because whether sites are paid or not many can and do promote candidates, or any other cause, with no respect for transparency or heaven forbid, the truth. Isn't this what it amounts to: personal agenda according to how so-in-so see's it? Who in their right mind could ever believe most in the blogging community are more objective and fair than the mainstream press.

When readers don't pay, to assume they have a right to know whether the opinions are a product of independent judgment, is pie in the sky.

[martin]

I was reading Daily Kos before he signed on as a consultant for Howard Dean. He declared himself when he did that and kept a disclaimer on his site.

His blog entry called for a retraction contains a long entry excerpted from a different blog that puts the WSJ in a bad light. On that basis, Kos seems quite justified.

Chris Sullentrop has an article on Slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2112314/) that criticises Kos on other grounds but Steve Gilliard does a good job (http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/01/letsjust-make-shit-up-and-call-it.html) of taking that apart.

The scandal is that some are trying to compare Kos and Armstrong Williams. That's where the lack of professional ethics really lies.