Edelman, Wal-Mart and fake blogging

Editor's note: Edelman clients have sponsored BlogHer conferences and BlogHerAds.

Hi Morra,

We are really in staunch disagreement on this one! When I read your last sentence, I headed over to your blog, Women and Work, to read your full post where I got a better sense of what you think:

"Did Edelman overstep? Absolutely. Does it have egg on its face? Obviously. Is this growing pains of a medium where big corporate money intersects with an essentially grassroots, social media? I think so.

"Now, I started the department at Edelman that’s come under so much fire. I helped launch the Wal-Mart account (tough for a committed Democrat with a labor arbitrator father). I hired Miranda Grill when it was just me, and she is an honorable person. The department has done great worked. It’s taken risks. I don’t know what led to these fake blogs launching without bylines, but honestly, anyone who’s worked in DC knows there are a million coalitions and groups run by communications firms. Call any 1-800 coalition number for many non-profits and companies and you’ll get a PR firm.

"Why is a blog so different? Because it’s more visible to those beyond the target audience?"

Let's examine the 1-800 number analogy you invoke for a minute. If I call a labor union hotline and I ask who I'm speaking to, and I'm told "Jenny" that's fine. If Jenny tells me she's paid to answer the union hotline, that's fine. If, however, she identifies herself as "Jenny, a union member who volunteers two hours a week on this hotline," and Jenny is really an Edelman employee? That makes Jenny a liar.

Now, let's substitute a blog for the 1-800 number and pay two people to RV across America, blogging about the WalMarts and friendly employees where they stay along the way. The problem in this case of the WalMart blog writers is that they lied to us, their readers. Laura and Jim aren't two people who just happened to vacation across America in their RV on a lark. They were paid by WalMart to write this blog about WalMart stores and employees, who were part of a coordinated blog campaign designed to promote WalMart in the blogosphere. Whether or not their blog entries were true does not matter -- the fact that they were paid changes everything.

As Mamalogues responded to Marianne Richmond's post, "Blogs are the new penny presses; it was only a matter of time before corporate tried to pollute it. In the end all we have is our word!"

What kind of commitment should bloggers make to their readers? I'm one of the people who thinks every blog owes its readers four answers, whether the blog is a corporate blog, a news blog or a personal diary:

1. Who are the bloggers?
2. What are the bloggers doing?
3. Why are the bloggers doing this?
4. Why do I -- the reader -- care?

The WalMart blog flunks every question:

1. Who are the bloggers?

Old answer: Laura and Jim, a couple who likes to travel in their RV

Truth: James Thresher, a Washington Post photographer who is violating his employer's editorial guidelines and hasn't disclosed his full name, and his partner, Laura St. Claire, a professional freelancer. See: Washington Post photographer anonymously promoted Wal-Mart

2. What are the bloggers doing?

Old answer: Laura and Jim, a couple who likes to travel in their RV, are driving from WalMart to WalMart on a lark

Truth: Two professional journalists, paid to blog about WalMart by WalMart and exchange comments with Edelman PR employees who are paid to read and comment on the blog. At a time when Wal-Mart has been widely criticized world-wide as a company that "mistreats workers, destroys small retail businesses and conducts deceptive public relations campaigns", Jim posts items that read, ""Nicole Brown is quick to praise her manager, Stephan Gordon, for making her working environment so positive" (from Oct. 5).

3. Why are the bloggers doing this?

Old answer: On a lark! Wacky middle-aged kids, they heart WalMart

Truth: They're paid to do this, whether or not they are wacky, middle-aged or heart WalMart.

4. Why do I -- the reader -- care?

Old answer from Pam "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."

Pam after the truth is revealed: "I am a rube, apparently. That sunshine was corporate backed, by none other than Wal-Mart."

Pam feels tricked -- because she didn't have the full story. It's impossible to have the kind of conversation many people seek online without the full disclosure and transparency that allows people to trust you. Hey, she writes, she probably still would have read it if she'd only known:

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.

I thought Edelman understood and embraced the tenets of full-disclosure. As you may know, I wrote glowingly of company head Richard Edelman when he came out strongly against Video News Releases (VNRs) in this piece I wrote for PressThink:

From Richard Edelman's blog "Speak Up" on January 15, 2005:

“We cannot tolerate any arrangement that envisages payment for placement. To do otherwise completely undermines the essence of our position as honest advocate and eliminates the separation of church and state for the media. Why bother reading the editorial copy if it is purchased in the same way as the advertising?"

Exactly. Why bother reading editorial copy if it is purchased in the same way as advertising? You may read it, sure -- but you'll read it differently, to Pam's post.

Amen. This is why BlogHer's guidelines for the community and editors spell it out, as I said two weeks ago when we launched BlogHer Special Offers:

BlogHer is committed to the BlogHer Community Guidelines, which state that advertising and special offers on BlogHer.org (and on blogs that run BlogHerAds) should be labeled as advertising and special offers, and remain completely separate from blog posts or other editorial content. In other words, we want our editors, members and blog-partners to post their opinions -- not ads. That's why our guidelines prohibit "editorial content that has been commissioned and paid for by a third party, and/or contains paid advertising links and/or spam."

As I say again and again -- women are happy to consume and we do it well, firmly in control of 83 percent of household spending. We want to do so as equals with businesses we trust, where we are treated with respect and honesty.

We're the patrons. So thanks, but no thanks - WalMart and Edelman should leave the, erm, patronizing to us.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette