« I Love People...Really | Main | More on Pierce »

January 26, 2005

Sooz In the News

For a couple months now, Sooz has been part of a pilot program with a company called Marqui, who's offering a handful of bloggers a little stipend to blog about them. She doesn't have to rave about them, or make stuff up - just mention them every so often and keep the Marqui name out there. All of which she's very careful to label as specific entries, and frequently discloses that she's part of this program; unlike the Bush Administration's "pay for praise" program, it's all very transparent.

So it's odd that The Globe And Mail, a respectable Canadian newspaper, would write an article about the program, feature her and quote her site, without...y'know...talking to her. Odd.

They do find the time to talk to Jason Calcanis, who comes off as a professional busybody wringing his hands about the mixture of independent journalism and commercialism (you can read his entry about it here, just to the left of the big mortgage-company ad). He says that you create a conflict when you're "get[ting] paid for your editorial space". Sooz says that it's all on the table, and she's not unnecessarily saying anything positive about Marqui just for the sake of stroking the ego of her benefactor.

I agree with her, and not just 'cuz she's Sooz. The blogworld, despite the intentions of some Nosy Parkers, is what you/we make it. You don't need a license and a codified manual to blog (crap; I hope I didn't give anyone any ideas). As long as you're honest about what you're doing (unlike some of the Bush-shilling professional journalists), let's try some stuff out.

Filed Under: Miscellany | Permanent Link, Comments (2)   | Linking Blogs

Comments

amen

Posted by: peter caputa | January 28, 2005 12:01 AM

Thanks for the endorsement, Michael. And I didn't even have to pay you (much) for it. ;)

Posted by: Sooz [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 28, 2005 07:22 PM