Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Bribe your Blogger

I have been a journalist once. As a part of my job I was invited to a product roll-out. Some people were talking, some PR guys put printed text to my hands, asking me to publish it as is, and some other guys fed me with delights I learned to cook by myself ten years later.
It was bribery, fair and square. The journal I worked for had never run for free (although the publisher had never stopped trying to do so, and at the end wend bankruptcy... ). I dodn't work for free, and it was OK to pay me with food in order to make me do things.
This is why blogging is so great. No one pays you (at least not directly) and it is OK to say exactly what you want to say.
Unless... you are paid to blog. Sponsored blog are as OK as official-journals. What I dislike are bloggers who aim at differentiating between journalism and blogging in the account of freedom and unbiased writing.
A "blog" I came across today is writing about the food he was served in a Google Israel event. This is journalism. Period.

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