Media Lies disclosure policy

The chatter about bloggers being paid to blog has been all over the blogosphere, with reactions from ho-hum to how could they. Captain Ed weighed in today with his opinion on the controversy.

Here's mine. I don't really care what other bloggers do. If they want to accept money from someone, that's their business. If it represents a conflict of interest and they don't disclose it up front, they risk exposure and a subsequent loss of credibility. Again, that's their choice. They make their choices, and they get to live with the consequences of those choices.

I would never accept money for my blogging nor will I be posting ads on my blog. I might reconsider the ads issue, but I personally dislike them, so I doubt I would change my mind unless I reached Instapundit status and the ads paid really well. Even then I wouldn't accept any ad unless I truly believed in the product.

I'm fortunate to have a good job in the computer industry, my wife works full time as a telecommuter and our children are grown. If my blog ever got to the point that I had to pay hosting fees, I would pay those out of my own pocket. I can afford to. If the blog got really busy, I'd probably buy a server, put it at a local hosting company and admin the operation myself (on FreeBSD, of course.)

If an online (or not) publication thought enough of my writing to pay me to write articles, I would consider that, but the contract would have to include a clause that I can publish whatever I want on my blog, including criticism of the company that was paying me to write for them.

In short, my opinions are not for sale (not that anyone would want to pay for them anyway.) I'll add a permanent link to this post so readers can find it easily if they want to.