Time To Clean Up Tainted Journalism

The Monday Note covers the intersection between media and technology and the shift of business models. It is jointly edited by Frédéric Filloux, a Paris-based journalist and Jean-Louis Gassée, a Silicon Valley veteran currently general partner for the venture capital firm Allegis Capital in Palo Alto. Their column appears on CBS News.com each Monday.

In both cases, the idea is same: a casual blogger from the network writes whatever review he or she wants to in exchange for a free product. The item can be an electronic appliance worth a few dozen dollars or it can be a trip worth a thousand dollars. The brand pays FuelMyBlog $40 per review. (The process also results in those brands getting higher Google page rankings).

With the explosion of the iPhone applications business, Dixie decided to roll out a dedicated site based on the same idea: the blogger would purchase the app, then test and write a review; FuelMyApp then reimburses him via its PayPal account.

I met Kevin Dixie last week at Eurovision's NewsXChange conference in Malta. Although I found his little system quite clever, I told him I couldn't help but feel queasy about the flexible ethics involved. It's OK to get a new disposable razor to test, but staying a week in a resort for free and expecting a true and honest independent review is a totally different story. Having lived and breathed journalism for twenty five years, I don't buy the idea of freebies being compatible with independent reviews.

It is actually a question of degree. Getting a book or a CD from a publisher is OK because it's only a $20 item. Getting a $200 software product, or a $500 weekend for free and expecting a balanced review is more problematic, to say the least.

I happen to live in a country where entire segments of journalism - I'm talking of mainstream media - are corrupt. I could tell countless stories of reporters covering the auto industry who call an automaker's PR department of to get a car for a weekend escape with their girlfriends, or who get flown abroad to test a new car model (four days, five star accommodation.) I know one journalist from a major women's magazine, who is so deluged with free stuff that she has to organize a private sale twice a year to clear her closets. Sports reporters I know feel "so close" to their beat that they refuse to explore controversial chemistry or money issues. I'm familiar with certain tech reporters who are literally warehousing software and computer games. These same journalists have not bought a single PC in the last ten years.

Of course, many an editor has tried to take action against such practices. At we attached a set of rules to the working contract stating what was acceptable and what wasn't. A book sent by a publisher or an invitation by a source in a not-too-expensive restaurant was fine, but not an iPod or a test-drive in Tunisia. Although I can't guarantee that this system has been 100% foolproof, I think it's performed reasonably well. (In one instance, I had to fire a freelance tech writer who kept calling a publicist requesting computer games for alleged tests. We discovered that the reporter later resold them on eBay.)

Fact is that media is increasingly subject to a soft form of corrupting pressure from merchants. And as news outlets cut costs, many yield to the temptation of press junkets. PR firms or in-house flacks are happy to fill the gaps, in a pure and disinterested way, of course. For the same reasons, a greater number of technology reviews are provided by poorly-paid freelancers instead of staff writers who are supposed to be paid enough money to be clean.

Is it then any wonder why publicists, marketers, and others intermediaries are now lusting after the blogosphere? Think about it: thousands of blogs, most of them written by penniless amateurs, not bound by any ethical rules - it's a dream come true for the flack crowd. Blogs represent a new playground in which to buy influence. Actually, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (Womma) estimates that such spending has grown from $300 million in 2003 to $1.54 billion last year. It is expected to reach $3 billion by 2013. Besides the blogs, there are also many venues dedicated to product reviews, such as the iTunes Store.

"The more positive reviews you get, the higher you rank," says Kevin Dixie. For a costly, paid-for application, that could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Thus, spending big time for a positive review is quite worth the initial expense. Because of this, Dixie says that the App Store review system cannot be trusted. In many cases, he adds, the first five reviews have been paid for."

This suspicion recently led the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to issue a directive forcing bloggers to disclose any conflict of interests. Violating these rules could bring a $11,000 penalty. Good idea, perhaps, but poorly executed. The blogosphere and many professional technology sites erupted in anger, saying this directive was impossible to enforce. The FTC had to back down, explaining that it won't actually fine any blogger. This was just a shot being fired across the bow for the most blatant cases. The other main argument against the ruling was its unfairness as the MSM was not being held accountable to the same rule.

A couple of thoughts about best practices.

Whether anyone writes a blog post or a column in a mainstream publication, authors owe readers the same sort of disclosure requirements. At a minimum, they ought to refrain from writing about companies with which they do any business. The ecosystem ought to take care of the rest. I bet readers will be good at sorting out the good from the bad. Some blogs - or review systems - will fall into the fishy (or corrupt) category while others will emerge as trusted brands. There is no shortage of trusted sites and reviewers on the Internet; they range from pure players such as TechCrunch, ArsTechnica, Gizmodo, CNet, ReadWriteWeb, or DPreview (for digital photography), to MSM writers such as Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg or New York Times' David Pogue. Both are "brands" in their own fiefdoms and are paid accordingly.

Second point: Clumsy as it was, the FTC directive had the merit of shedding light on unacceptable practices plaguing the blogosphere. I think some version of the FTC guidelines, in the form of non-enforceable recommendations, should be considered by the European Union as well. The blogosphere is a fantastic space for free expression. It should be kept transparent and free of deceitful content.

By Jean-Louis Gassée and Frederic Filloux
Special to CBSNews.com