Full-Disclosure Blogging

According to news reports out today (click here for New York Times report by Tim Arango; click here for Wall St Journal preview), the Federal Trade Commission will require -- effective 1 December -- that bloggers who review products must disclose the relationship with the products' manufacturers, as in, Did they get the product free?

The Times article references one blogger, Christine Young, of Lincoln CA, who writes the "From Dates to Diapers" blog. Soon after she began, "[the] free products soon started arriving, and now hardly a day goes by without a package from Federal Express or DHL arriving at her door, she said. Mostly they are children’s products, like Nintendo Wii games, but sometimes not. She said she recently received a free pair of women’s shoes from Timberland. Ms. Young said she had always disclosed whether or not she received a free product when writing her reviews. But companies have nothing to lose when sending off goodies: if she doesn’t like a product, she simply won’t write about it."

I have nothing against Ms. Young (I don't know her, and have never read her blog), but that's a long way from what I'd call "full-disclosure blogging", which is the only kind of product-review blogging there should be. I've written about this question before (click here to see the old post), and, to me, "full-disclosure" means just that. If I were to start reviewing products (not that I expect to), I would owe it to my readers to tell them whether I paid for it, received it as a gift from a friend, received it as a gift from the manufacturer, or whatever, because that how will undoubtedly affect my evaluation, no matter how much I try not to let it. This is why Consumer Reports magazine insists on buying the products it reviews off the shelf and why it doesn't accept paid advertising (I've been a Consumer Reports subscriber for many years; that is my only connection with the magazine).

If Ms. Young doesn't write about a product, how are her readers supposed to know whether she's not written about Product X because she hasn't tried it yet or because she didn't like it -- which are rather different critters, and it's more than disingenuous of her not to acknowledge that difference.

The new FTC rules will also apply to, for example, celebrities who Tweet about "favorite" products online. They too will have to disclose any corporate ties. 'Bout time, say I.