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“Bloggers Regulation Calls for Transparency of the Blogosphere”
On Monday, 5 October,  the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) outlined in a 81 page Federal document specific regulations for bloggers. After reading through the text, media heads became wary. The guideline stipulates a number of rules that infringe Free Speech rights, specifying how bloggers distribute information and ultimately, run their sites. Overall, the guidelines mandate ”disclosure of relationships between bloggers and companies that pay them or supply them with products.” In lay terms, FTC ’s governing of bloggers assert an outward assumption that all bloggers take compensation from marketers. Under this logic, they are practicing advertising, rather than journalism. If they are in fact receiving product endorsements, they are presumably “guilty of false advertising and subject to prosecution.” However, FTC can only control commercial speech. So defining bloggers’ work as commercial speech, rather than free speech, makes them eligible for regulation.

Moreover, it designates a divide between bloggers and other media forums. It seems, at first glance, a clear attack on the blogging community, stating “bloggers may be subject to different disclosure requirements than reviewers in traditional media. The regulations only exempt ‘newspapers, magazines, televisions or radio stations with independent editorial responsibility,’ not on-line news and wire services.”

Questions raised:

The FTC guidelines use the terms “blogs” and “consumer-generated media” interchangeably, but they’re far from synonymous. Plenty of bloggers work for those “traditional media” entities consumers trust so much. Take me, [Jeff Bercovici] for instance. I work for one of the world’s biggest media companies, but the outlet I write for is indisputably a blog. Before this, I wrote a blog published on the website of a print magazine. Did that make me a blogger or a traditional journalist? What about professional journalists who contribute to a blogging site like True/Slant, that pays them? What about amateurs who blog for the Huffington Post, an increasingly corporate entity? There’s no end to the permutations.-Jeff Bercovici

If a book blogger assigns book reviews to other writers, does that blogger then meet the standard the FTC has established for media companies freeing them from the obligation to disclose the provenance of the products under review? If so, how little can bloggers get away with paying their reviewers? How about nothing? Is nothing an acceptable level of payment for contracted reviewers? -Ron Hogan

If a blogger prints out a series of blog posts and distributes those printed copies, is he now the publisher of a newspaper or magazine? If so, the Village Voice is distributed for free, so can a blogger/publisher distribute his newspaper or magazine for free, too?-Declan McCullagh

When I [Declan McCullagh] write about Google, which is not that often, I voluntarily that I’m married to a Google employee… The FTC wants ‘disclosure of material connections’ — are spousal paychecks and stock options in a community property state like California ‘material?’ Are bloggers required to disclose their spouse’s employer if they’re writing about that company or its competitors? How about political bloggers married to politicians or their aides?-McCullagh, D.

As long as we’re on the subject of endorsements, will the FTC be requiring celebrities to disclose the ‘material connections’ they share with the producers of the clothes and accessories they wear when they make public appearances-say, for example, on the red carpet at the Academy Awards? If not, why not?-Hogan, R.

As of December, 2009,  the FTC guidelines will go into effect, and fines are issued up to $11,000.  Do you feel these journalistic regulations are ethical? The topical debate of Free Speech can become very heated. Is the FTC responsible for discerning how bloggers communicate to their audience? Are readers really at harms way? And even more, the tenuous line between on-line blogs and newspapers is difficult to discern, how does the FTC differentiate which writers to pursue? How come bloggers are asked to be so “transparent?” EM would like to know your opinion. Please  follow the discussion further, and visit slate.com and ericgoldman.org and let us know what you think.

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Source cited from CBS News , Mediabistro, Dailyfinance.