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"Ask the partner to give you heads up on customer situations â bribe them!"
--Steve Winfield, Microsoft
"I've been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in
Cialdini's book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel <em>some</em> obligation to return the favor to Microsoft."
--Former Microsoft manager
Vendor-Paid Product Reviews and Journalists vs. Bloggers
,----[ Quote ]
| Ever since the US economy turned sour,
| hordes of people have flocked to blogging
| as their path to riches. Because there is
| nothing so fine and empowering, including
| the Internet, that it cannot be subverted
| for crass commercial exploitation. And thus
| we have a growing phenomenon of vendors
| paying bloggers to review their products.
|
| My first reaction is to recoil in horror.
| How is that not the most blatant shilling?
| Why would anyone want to trust such a
| "review"? But on the other hand, the news
| and publishing industries have been taking
| terrific beatings, so more power to anyone
| who can get paid to write product reviews.
| But on yet another hand, it seems an
| obvious conflict of interest. But on still
| another hand, it's OK if the blogger
| discloses it, right?
|
| And then what is the difference between a
| blogger getting paid by the vendor to write
| a review, and a journalist accepting review
| units? The usual practice is to receive
| hardware on loan for review, and to return
| it after 30 or 60 days. Most vendors don't
| want to hassle with software returns since
| those are just boxes of CDs. Most reviewers
| give away product that vendors don't want
| back. But there are reporters who are
| notorious swag hounds, and who exploit
| vendor relationships for all they can get.
|
| [...]
|
| In the end it seems that what matters the
| most are a journalist's or blogger's
| reputation, ability, and quality of work.
| Doesn't it seem that even in this high-tech
| era everything comes down to knowing who
| you can trust?
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2010-02-06-001-35-OP-BZ-CY
Tech Crunch hack sacked over bribe
http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/2/5/tech-crunch-hack-sacked-over-bribe/
TechCrunch Ditches Young Intern Learning From "Interns"?
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/10794.html
TechCrunch and its lost Teachable Moment
,----[ Quote ]
| I first found out about the blowup at
| TechCrunch this morning when I read our own
| Kim LaCapriaâs post about Michael Arrington
| sacking young Daniel Brusilovsky because of
| accusations of accepting tech toys in
| exchange for favorable posts. I have
| followed that up with reading every post on
| the matter that came through my feed
| reader. Just for the record they are:
|
| An Apology To Our Readers
| Techcrunch Accepts Money for Posts â Fires
| Under Age Blogger Daniel Brusilovsky
| Rule #1: be honest
| The Line Was Crossed
| Was Deleting All Daniel Brusilovskyâs Posts
| an FTC Blogger Guideline Violation?
| [#bruhaha]
| Tech Journalism Wunderkind in Bribery
| Scandal
| Payola allegations prompt TechCrunch to
| fire teen intern
| Unpaid Techcrunch Reporter Sacked For Bribe
| Attempt
|
| So I would say I have a really good
| grounding on all the angst and finger-
| pointing that is going on around what
| Daniel is suppose to have done.
`----
http://www.inquisitr.com/60696/techcrunch-and-its-lost-teachable-moment/
Intern fired in TechCrunch brouhaha
http://blog.internetnews.com/dneedle/2010/02/intern-fired-in-techcrunch-bro.html
Related:
Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan
,----[ Quote ]
| The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV
| news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.
`----
http://valleywag.com/tech/federated-media/microsoft-pays-star-writers-to-recite-slogan-271485.php
Malik, Arrington and Battelle: X-22, come in [to Microsoft]
,----[ Quote ]
| What would possess a collection of online publishers and venture capitalists
| to pimp a Microsoft advertising slogan?
|
| Valleywag today reported about a site tied to a Microsoft ad campaign
| where the likes of Michael Arrington, Om Malik and others seemingly
| lend their support to the "people-ready" catchphrase.
|
| I sent e-mails both to Arrington and Malik and--surprise,
| surprise--heard nothing back. (Obviously, they are not yet
| sufficiently "Coop-ready.") Microsoft was still checking for me into
| whether money exchanged hands. But even if not a single shekel exchanged
| hands, I must wonder about the absence of common sense. Why would
| ostensibly independent voices come across as Microsoft shills? If
| they were hoping for a free dinner with Bill Gates, there are
| smarter ways to go about it.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9733995-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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