Missed this

Di — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:14:37 -0500

Came looking for other things ... and found a scandal.

These guys don't have a leg to stand on, hell we could hang out and write something like this ... but for our ethics.

Wal-Marting RVers Outed as Corporate Bloggers

Pam — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:05:30 -0500

I posted here about the travel bloggers going from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart. They were writing profiles about the people they'd met while on their tour. I liked the blog in spite of my ambivelence about Wal-Mart. Their voice, a sort of middle America, is underrepresented in travel blogging and they seemed to have a sunshiney sort of Studs Terkel approach. (Forgive me, Studs, please.)

I am a rube, apparently.

That sunshine was corporate backed, by none other than Wal-Mart. From Blogger's Blog:

BusinessWeek reports how a blog about two people RVing from Las Vegas to Georgia has turned out to be a fakish blog called Walmarting Across America. The blog was backed by Wal-Mart and its PR firm Edelman.

At Business Blogwire there's a round up of links and commentary on the story about these regular folks who just happened to be working for the Wal.

And now this.

Wal-Marting Across America, a corporate blog that PR firm Edelman managed for Wal-Mart, failed to clarify that its bloggers were being paid by a pro-Wal-Mart organization called Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), which Edelman had previously launched.

Stinky.

The blog itself avoids the issue.

So now weâ€™re being attacked. Why? Because we dared to write positive things about Wal-Mart. The people who hate Wal-Mart couldnâ€™t argue with anything we said â€” we were writing about real people and telling true stories.

They're missing the point. They're aren't being attacked for writing positive things about Wal-Mart. They're being attacked for not disclosing their relationship with the retailing 100 pound gorilla.

Wal-Mart Watch tells you who these regular folks are, here. What a pity for Jim and Laura that they couldn't tell us themselves from the get go. They may very well be telling the truth about their relentlessly positive experiences, but now that we know they're backed by Wal-Mart, do we trust them?

The lesson for bloggers, travel or otherwise? Disclose, disclose, disclose. The blogosphere is full of people who will tell your story honestly, so you might as well do it yourself and control it.

Hat tip to Sheila at Family Travel.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.

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Missed this

Wal-Marting RVers Outed as Corporate Bloggers