Though it’s been said that bloggers aren’t held to quite the same standards as journalists, if you become a popular blogger, the crowd better see you as legit-transparency in the second evolution of the Web is becoming a survival skill. Blogging is about sticking it to the Man, and if it appears you’ve been bought (under a pretense of the opposite), you’ll be called on your treachery.
ZDNet blogger Jeffrey Young wasted little time announcing the “blogoviating” and “fatuous” (that means asinine) reporting of popular product reviewer Michael Arrington.
“If you want to read a blog entry that demonstrates much of what is currently wrong with the blogosphere,” writes Jeffrey, “read this one about TrustedID, a new credit protection service that has raised a bunch of Silicon Valley VC money from investors whose myopia has led them to reinvent the wheel.
“Obviously, everybody associated with this company has drunk from the Kool Aid pitcherand that includes the guy who wrote the piece, Michael Arrington.”
Ouch.
Young points to the comments section of Arrington’s blog post, which advised the entire United States to sign up for the service, to illustrate that the “wisdom of crowds” is proving to be worth its salt.
Readers are immediately skeptical, noticing the “info-mercial” feel about a company that lacked a lot important info at its website, and asking Arrington if he’d accepted a little cash from the company.
But one entertaining comment makes the adventure worthwhile by mentioning an experiment where someone attempts to send in a torn-up credit card application.
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