Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dirt: There are several big problems with the new guidelines that are upsetting professional bloggers like myself. First, it imposes legal restrictions on us while "traditional media" is allowed to continue to be self-policing. These guidelines specifically exclude them. That discriminates among writers based simply on the venue they publish in.

Second, the guidelines are very vague and broad, kind of similar to the "we'll know it when we see it" obscenity concept. You are considered to have a business relationship with a company if you accept free product from them. Is that only if the product involved is the current one I'm reviewing? What if I bought that product but a year ago they sent me a different product to review? Do I have to disclose THAT in my current review as a "business relationship"? What if I took a tote bag from them at a trade show? Does that count as a "freebie" I have to report when I review a product of theirs I bought?

As you can see, there are a ton of questions that the guidelines just don't answer. And if you are going to potentially hold me legally liable for not following those guidelines, you better make them CLEAR. And they are full of grey areas that I can't figure out what to do to comply with them, even though I work very hard to keep my ethics above board. These rules require more disclosure about things than any reasonable ethical rules would.

I also don't like that by requiring "fine print" in bloggers' articles, it makes us all look spammy. For most people, the presence of fine print or disclaimers sets off their alarms that something is less than right about what they are seeing. Now all blogs will look like bad neighborhoods, especially to users who are less-than-savvy about the internet and things like this FTC regulation's impact, whereas print media will look so much more respectable - "Well, they don't need disclaimers - they must be more trustworthy."