In the second major story of it’s kind, it’s been revealed that Howard Dean paid two separate bloggers $3000 per month for four months. That in itself isn’t bad; as long as people know who’s paying for the opinions, that is. Unfortunately, those two blogs, The Daily Kos and MyDD, did not disclose the funds. It’s an ethical tightrope. Republican Jim Thune did the same thing during his Senate race, and those bloggers didn’t disclaim until after the election.
If you get paid to do something, you should say it. FYI, ProudLiberal.org has no outside funding whatsoever, and is paid for entirely by me, Walter H. Nothing to declare here!
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Howard Dean Paid Bloggers
Steve Rubel | Contributing Writer | 2005-01-15
More evidence we’re living in a new media world with few rules. David Akin notes that The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, “…that the Daily Kos and another blog received $3,000 a month for four months from the Howard Dean campaign.”
More from the David Akin blog:
“The story reports that the bloggers disclosed on their blogs that they received funds from the Dean campaign.
The Journal’s story began with a post by Zephyr Teachout, who worked on the Dean campaign.
Neither The Daily Kos nor MyDD, though, contains disclosures now about how they pay their bills, something I think is important if you want your views on whatever issue to be taken seriously.
The guy behind the Daily Kos, it should be noted, received hard-to-get press credentials for the Democratic National Convention, the same kind of credentials normally reserved for those who are not being paid by the politicians they are ostensibly reporting on. The guy behind MyDD quit his blogging while he worked for the Dean campaign.
… This, incidentally, is not an issue about politics. This is an issue of vital importance to the craft of journalism and the challenge to that craft from bloggers.”