"Journalistic ethics and standards" always gives me a good laugh, combine it with blogging and it is even funnier.

A few of the environmental blogs that I read do reviews of products. All of them comment on how they got the product (ie. free or paid for it). Lots of them do a give away of the product that they trialed. They might have gotten two or they even purchased one for giveaway. Sometimes their reviews are good and sometimes - not so good. I felt bad for the orange juice company that one blogger completely crucified in their blog.

I don't consider them bought and paid for. I like to hear about products so I can consider if I might want to use them. Heck, I discovered I bought more EcoSacs than I was actually going to use and did a giveaway on the extras. In my mind, it was a great way to pass along the ability to trial a new product with little risk.

Perhaps I am wrong but getting some free products that have to do with the theme of your blog doesn't seem like a big deal and in my eyes doesn't reduce the good that they are doing with their informative blogs.

This topic is dear to my heart.

I don't think the world will end if bloggers accept PR goodies, but it does make me sad. I don't think they quite understand how cheaply they are selling their space.

It's just another way that women creative types in particular stay in the ghetto. A free Swiffer! Woo hoo! Do you know what a page ad in a magazine costs?

Stacey, why didn't you give the gift to a charity rather than send it back? wouldn't ethics allow that? follow-up with a thank you letter to the company explaining that you gave the gift to a charity-- surely that isn't unethical?

to captiolhillmom: In the case of the Webkinz, the postal service called me about delivery, so it was easiest to just refuse the item and return it. When companies mail items to me and I receive them, I do tend to donate them. Our local library, for instance, has gotten a LOT of parenting books.

Not for any amount of money or trinkets would I allow anyone but my three children to address me, or refer to me, as "mommy," blog or no blog.

I would argue that full disclosure is necessary. Mrs. Blade and the twins went to a Billy Jonas concert recently at Jammin' Java. [He's terrific by the way.] If she chose to blog about it, it wouldn't have mattered whether or not she paid for the tickets. As long as the blogger discloses the freebie, no biggie for me.

This particular issue came up for food bloggers recently. Some of the more influential ones are getting special treatment.

BB

As one of the founders of blogwithintegrity.com, I'm so pleased that you're talking about this. We have found it's led to so many really productive discussions with bloggers, readers, and PR and marketers. The issue goes beyond whether you can tell if something you're reading was bought and paid for; there are deep issues in the PR community in terms of shakedowns by bloggers for swag and money which is entirely crazy.

What's been most surprising to me however, is how many bloggers want to blog with integrity and best practices but are lacking the guidance to do so. We've received emails from those who signed the pledge explaining that they actually hadn't considered why it was important to disclose that a product or money was received in exchange for coverage until now. It was shocking. But how great that simply putting a few common sense guidelines into writing can have such a positive impact.

In fact, I wish you had included some quotes from the blogging community in support of the initiative to contrast those that still have questions. One of my favorite was from Lindsay Maines who writes as "Rock and Roll Mama: "As a member of the print journalism community as well, I was saddened to see [an] article describing a blogger's site as a "shill fest"...so high five on caring about our community enough to put forth an alternate story."