Politics

With all the mud being slung around about laptop bribes and ethics, there are some things that must be thought over. What is the impact of freebies for bloggers? Nothing if that blogger is ethical. Sure, you will run into some folks that claim to have turned down freebies, sure you will run into some that will be tainted by freebies, but it all boils down to the person and their integrity. If the person has a proven track record, his following will support most actions as long as they in the best interests of the sites.

Me for instance. I get far fewer freebies than many folks think I get. The freebies I do get, I get out to others I trust to review them for me. Most of the time, I get a good honest review from them. I quit reviewing accessories and software personally since I can get those easy. These are often freebies when the review is complete. I will not personally review any item from companies that provides financial support to my sites. You can ask any of the reviewers that have written reviews for me in the past. I have never asked them to change anything in their reviews to “make a vendor happy”.

A couple years ago, we were asked by HP to join their program for review units. Long story short, we turned it down. Read about that fiasco at Mobility Site. Regardless of what we have or have not gotten to keep on my sites, I am pretty sure that my readers and most of my peers trust my findings and the authenticity of my reviews. My reviews are thorough, in depth, and I attempt to answer many of the questions that I am sure the readers want to here. Sure, I have gotten a phone or two, sure Microsoft pays my way to some events, but my readers don’t seem to mind. (Although, I may be mistaken)

Let’s look at some contrast in these methods. Just today Jason Calacanis made a post in regards to his blogs (You know, Engadget…) and the folks at Gizmodo posted a Swag list for the year, indicating to me that they have gotten to keep many items. Some of the Gizmodo folks scored fairly big. Dollar for Dollar wise, I did about as good as some of them. (not that it matters…) Now, I respect both Engadget and Gizmodo highly and I don’t think less of either one of them on how they do business, but I show that their appears to be two different styles on the “Issue” at hand.

Gizmodo says….

As 2006 comes to a close, it’s time for Gizmodo’s (first) annual year-end “schwag watch.” You might recall that Gizmodo has been disclosing the products that our writers keep, or accept as gifts, since earlier this year. We were reminded to update this irregular feature upon learning that Microsoft gifted Ferrari laptops to a bunch of bloggers.

But back to the schwag. Gizmodo never trades posts, or editorial placement of any sort, for gifts. In the course of covering consumer electronics, well, schwag happens. We believe in full disclosure, and we will always tell you if we accepted a junket. Which is why…

And Calacanis says this about Engadget and his others…

It seems from all the posts that Microsoft made a huge blunder by trying to pay folks off with free Ferrari laptops running Vista. Everyone in the blogosphere is trying to figure this out, but Peter, Brian and I figured it out day one at Weblogs, Inc: WE DO NOT ACCEPT BRIBES. Period, end of story. You want to be respected you pay your own way in life, and you don’t take payola. That’s it, there is nothing to discuss.

I believe both them both, I think you can do both. Unfortunately some cannot and that is what leads to the bullshit. I can personally vouch for Peter Rojas and Ryan Block from Engadget. I have attended events such as Mobius with both of them. For instance, Mobius 2006 in Boston. These guys came to the event on their own dime, well on Calacanis’ dime. They also gave away most of the swag at their reader meetup the last night of the conference. I don’t know any of the Gizmodo folks personally, but I am sure they are good people too. Just for the record, I attended this event all expenses paid and got the same freebies. I use the headphones and bag I got, I gave away the Samsung i320 I got, and can’t even remember if there was anything else. What I got out of the event was a great learning experience, got to give input to the Microsoft folks, and great fellowship with fellow enthusiasts.

My whole point can be summed up perfectly by Jason Dunn in this post…

Ed Bott has written a nice piece on the ethics of the whole thing (I’ll be writing about ethics and bloggers later on), but as for myself, it’s pretty simple: I’m answerable to the people that visit Thoughts Media sites because they’re the ones that support what I do. My readers know me and my style of honesty, and I’m confident that all of them will see this hardware for what it is: a tool that will help me do what I do better, and they’re the ones that will benefit from it in the end. I’m equally confident that anyone who looks back on the history of my writing (and involvement with Microsoft) will come to the same conclusion.

I too am fairly confident that my reader will read my reviews with the same open mind regardless if the reviewed item is a freebie, a loaner, or something I paid for myself. I know that I review the items with the same open mind.