Blogging and stealth P.R.

This is an NYTImes story, so you might have to register for it. The gist is that Walmart has a guy who works for Edelman writing blog entries that it sends out for bloggers to post. See the quotes below. You can post whatever you want as a blogger, but I would argue for transparency and that you need to own up to it being a press release or from someone with a point they want to make. It is interesting to me that PRNewswire members were asking about this at a panel I did for them recently, but I didn't have any concrete examples. Notice the one blogger was asking for advertising as he expected traffic to spike when he posted his "exclusive" from Wal-Mart. From a McLuhan-esque perspective, I think this technique may well backfire for bloggers who lose the trust of their audiences. Just like Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people, some of the time. I don't think this technique will last. Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign - New York Times: "Wal-Mart has warned bloggers against lifting text from the e-mail it sends them. After apparently noticing the practice, Mr. Manson asked them to 'resist the urge,' because 'I'd be sick if someone ripped you because they noticed a couple of bloggers with nearly identical posts.'But Mr. Manson has not encouraged bloggers to reveal that they communicate with Wal-Mart or to attribute information to either the retailer or Edelman, Ms. Williams of Wal-Mart said.To be sure, some bloggers who post material from Mr. Manson's e-mail do disclose its origins, mentioning Mr. Manson and Wal-Mart by name. But others refer to Mr. Manson as 'one reader,' say they received a 'heads up' about news from Wal-Mart or disclose nothing at all."