Ethical Blogging Means Blogging, well, Ethically

I've written about the ethics of blogging before, but I'm going to keep writing about it until we all get it right!

Today's New York Times has an article by Pradnya Joshi on how "Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor." In it, a number of bloggers comment on how valuable their reviews are to manufacturers. Says one, "You can’t really write a review if you haven’t used it or done it... It really is a valuable thing for marketers. It’s a real mom with a real voice."

That's absolutely true, as far as it goes. And many, probably most, bloggers who write reviews are good about posting whether the product under review was provided by the manufacturer or whether they purchased it themselves. Again, good, as far it goes.

But the sentence that stopped me was this one: "But unlike postings in most journalism outlets or independent review sites, most companies can be assured that there will not be a negative review: if she does not like a product, she simply does not post anything about it."

Now my mother did raise me in the old-fashioned "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" school. But I'm quite sure she was thinking about social relations, not business ones. Ethics are ethics, whether you're talking about your personal life or your professional one, but manners will change somewhat depending on the circumstances. And this isn't a question just of manners, but of trust.

Let's say that I, as a reader, go to this blog hoping to find a review of Product X, which I am considering buying. I don't find it there. Is that because the blogger hasn't gotten around to reviewing this hot new X yet? Or is it because she did review it, and didn't like it? How would I know?

Frankly, that's not "polite", it's dishonest.