Lazy Sunday: Conflict of Interest

There's been a lot of talk about what constitutes a conflict of interest for wine bloggers and wine writers (and now I'm contributing to it ).  

Josh over at pinotblogger has his usual thoughtful take, along with a lot of interesting comments (including one from me).

Add to it this interesting point-of-view on conflict of interest from someone who is pretty savvy about new media, and completely removed from the world of wine.  (Note to the prudish: it mentions oral sex.).

Finally, Debbie Weil of Blogwrite for CEOs has an excellent post summarizing what the Federal Trade Commission is doing about endorsements and disclosure.  She asks some great questions:

• Amateur vs. professional: is this the key question we should be asking about bloggers vs. journalists?
• Conflating conflict of interest and disclosure (aren’t these two different things?)   
• What constitutes payment (cash vs. in kind) and when is it appropriate or required for blogger reviews?   
• Credibility: if I tweet that I love Zappos do readers assume the online retailer is "paying" me (in shoes or money) to say that?
•  Finally, is it editorial, advertorial - or something in between - if a blogger is paid (in cash or in kind) to write about it? 

Her "required reading" list is just that if you're interested in this topic, and like me, she references the same "provocative" post from Penelope Trunk.

Comments

[Debbie Weil]

Mike,

Thanks for the shoutout. I'm still trying to unravel the FTC's proposed new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials. I wish more lawyers would weigh in on this issue!