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January 27, 2006
Crazy Blog-Junket
BlogAds and the Holland Board of Tourism have arranged a fully-comped five-day stay in Amsterdam for twenty-five lucky bloggers.
The piece suggests the bloggers should have been more upfront about the trip when they were first contacted about it. I don't know-- does one typically disclose in the middle of things? Before an agreement has been reached? What if that queers the deal?
Celebrity "journalists" are typically flown to resort hotels to do press for upcoming movies. Everyone knows this (I guess) but they don't disclose it.
As blogging becomes more important, yes, a system of ethics becomes more critical, but are we really so influential that we need to be more open and transparent than many salaried journalists? I don't think so.
As much as I'm filled with envy, spite, and hatred for these jagoffs, I don't know that they've done anything wrong. I'm sure if someone wrote something fawning about Amsterdam during the non-disclosure period we'd be hearing about it.
But I guess they had better common sense than that. Even the lefties invited, like TalkLeft and Pandagon.