Fear of a Blogged Planet
The FTC has decided to go after bloggers who review products. Apparently, there’s concern that some are writing dishonestly positive reviews of various items (shoes, books, cocktail sauce, what have you) in order to get more free stuff.
Stop the presses!
You mean somebody might actually use his or her position as a reviewer to get free stuff? You mean like the way fashion and lifestyle magazines cherry pick the products they feature in their “editorial” pages based on who’s purchased ad space with them? Do you mean, for example, like the way book reviewers in print media get to keep all the books publishers send them to review? Or the way movie stars show up for “interviews” on Letterman for the sole purpose of plugging their latest movie? Or the way movie producers accept free cases of Diet Coke for their film crews in exchange for “product placement” in their movies?
Oh, wait. I get it. If it’s in print, on TV, or on film, it’s okay. But if the blogosphere is doing it, well get out your regulatory pen.
Please.
The saving grace of the blogosphere is this: as soon as someone is outed as being a shill for any particular company, the gig is up. The blogosphere has its weaknesses for sure (casualness, wild forays into unreliability, flame wars, etc.). But when it comes to the crassly dishonest facade of editorial integrity with regard to product reviews, no one beats print. Just talk to anyone who works in the magazine industry. You know that stellar review you just read about a hotel in Timbuktu? The same hotel just put up the editorial staff of that magazine for free and fed them champagne all weekend.
I think this new move by the FTC is yet another example of the fear many people have of a future democratized by the Internet. But that future is already here. And, seriously, it’s not nearly as scary as you think.
Seriously, you have no idea how much this issue has gotten me annoyed/mad. It is such a double standard that if it’s in print, it’s okay. I understand the part where you declare if the product you are reviewing was given to you for free. That makes sense because some people feel obligated to give a good review to get more free products (I don’t though!). But everything else? No, I don’t understand it.
I need to take time this weekend to review the actual document but from what I’ve been able to gather it’s basically: list if you got the product for free, don’t link back to any retail stores or authors (for book blogging), and you’ll have to list what you keep for your taxes as compensation.
What really bothers me the most is not being allowed to link to authors. I like linking their websites. I like reading their blogs and linking good posts. And what about interviews? Are we not allowed to link to the author then? I don’t understand how linking authors is considered endorsing them. And if we are not allowed to endorse authors, does that mean that we can’t endorse political candidates also?
The thing is, with me, I’ll give an honest review. If I didn’t like Cycler, I would have said so in a review. I know that you were kind enough to send the book to me but I would have tried not to be biased at all. Of course it is difficult to do at times, but I’d rather be honest about it. And it’s not like I’m book reviewing to get free books, I really don’t get that many! In fact, I think that when you sent me Cycler, that was the 1st book I received for review and not a contest. And the thing is I don’t ask for books to review, if they’re offered I’ll check them out then decide whether I want to read it.
Also, I read somewhere that if you have a bad review for a free product, the FTC doesn’t care if you declare that it was free. That does not make sense to me. Bash something as much as you want but as soon as you say something nice (and didn’t mention that it was free) you may get up to a $11,000 fine.
And how does this all effect vloggers like us at FiveAwesomeYAFans? Are we thrown into the blogging community or are we considered a separate media?
And you know, there was that one old document thing that we studied in school, you probably have heard about it: The United States Constitution. Yeah, funny how they had a certain 1st amendment that stated:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I’m sure that you’ve guessed which part I find interesting with this new issues… “prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”. Why is blogging not considered press? Do I need to print up newsletters and mail them out to my followers?
Anyways, I think that I could go on and on. But I think that I’ll leave this comment at the length that it’s at.
The more I read about these guidelines, the more horrified I become. One of the wonderful things about online book reviewers like yourself is the way you create a community of active readers. Essential to this community are all the things the FTC wants to restrict–like linking to author’s websites, links to buy the book online, etc. Why on earth the FTC wants to restrict this inherently democratic, user-generated community is utterly beyond me. My publisher and I gave away many copies of Cycler to reviewers and under no circumstances did we expect positive reviews, nor did we always get positive reviews. The strength of the online book community lies in the inherent integrity of it. It’s a space where people say what they want because they’re *not* profiting from it. To suggest that the receipt of a book is payment for the review of a book is just ludicrous to me. Does Anna Wintour have to declare all the clothes that she and her Vogue staff receive from designers hoping to be included in the next issue? Of course not. Nor should she. As the editor of Vogue, it’s expected and natural that she should have ready access to the things she’s opining on.
I can only guess, as I said above, that this whole ridiculous thing is the result of some luddite terror of the brave new hyperlinked world.
We should fight this tooth and nail.
Worded perfectly.
new follower
dunielle
Free Advance Reader Copies have been a controversy on book blogs for the last two years (it’s why Blog With Integrity was recently created). That some book bloggers think free books–even uncorrected proofs–are adequate payment for enthusiastic reviews is all I can figure. It’s a bit like when doctors used to prescribe and also sell medicine.
Personally, I’m not so deep into the US recession that I have a sign up saying “will work for books.” I bought yours.
Also, given that the average price of a young adult hardcover is about $12 on Amazon, is it really fair to think of a free ARC as any kind of reasonable compensation for a review? It takes a lot of work to read and review a book.
I wonder if food critics will have to declare all of their free meals.