Wall Street Journal's fake blogger scandal
The Wall Street Journal tries to build a scandal from a few blog posts. Some Fon advisors wrote good things about the company, all of them mentioning their advisory roles. Where the hell is the scandal?
Here's the Register of Interests:
| Name | Site | In bed with | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Weinberger | Joho the Blog | Fon | He's all about his involvement. The Cluetrain guy wouldn't cheat readers. |
| Wendy Seltzer | Legal Tags | Fon | Fon was on her disclosure page before the WSJ piece. In yesterday's Google cache, the page included mention of payment. |
| Dan Gillmor | Bayosphere | Fon | Says he's an advisor, says he might get money for the job, and discloses Wendy's involvement too. |
| Dave Winer | Scripting.com | Edgeio | Dave giddily discloses his position — Edgeio is his special friend! |
| Doc Searls | Doc Searls Weblog | Jabber, Ping, Socialtext, Spikesource, Technorati | During the fallout, Doc put disclosures in his bio to be more transparent. And his transparency wasn't even being questioned. |
| Robert Scoble | Scobleizer | Microsoft | Robert discloses a ski trip. His Microsoft position is half his claim to fame now — they fully employ him. |
Feels like the WSJ is just sniping at bloggers. Rather embarrassing to see them stretch this far. Is there a grudge they're not disclosing?
Incidentally, let's flesh this register out. Which other bloggers are tied to outside interests? Comment or e-mail.
