Earlier this morning, I outlined some possible ways book publishers could support bloggers in convincing the Federal Trade Commission to cease applying a double standard that creates a different level of enforcement for blogs than that used for traditional media. I specifically mentioned the possibility that the largest publishers, either on their own or through the Association of American Publishers, could lobby the FTC and impress upon them a fuller understanding of the relationship they have with online media outlets.
It occurs to me now that traditional media might also have a role to play in this process. Perhaps this is naively idealistic, but what if the large traditional media companies were to send their lobbyists to the FTC to explain that (some) blogs are (conceived and produced as) media outlets just like the ones they produce, only on a much smaller scale, and thus deserving of the same legal standard they enjoy? In particular, traditional media companies could inform the FTC of their belief that consumer products sent to bloggers for the purposes of review should no more be considered “compensation” than the consumer products they’ve received, which would mean that the discussion of said products on a blog cannot be implicitly considered an “endorsement,” as the FTC currently does.
As I say, I recognize that this may be an idealistic position. However, I suspect it may be in traditional media’s best interests to run with it, or something like it, because once the FTC establishes that the receipt of consumer goods by a small media outlet, which is what a blog is, constitutes “compensation,” a precedent has been established that may one day lead to a similar conclusion about the receipt of consumer goods by larger media outlets. And just how is that conclusion going to be raised? Does anybody want to see Sam Tanenhaus subpoenaed to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the dispersement of each and every free book the New York Times Book Review receives? How about bringing Anna Wintour in to explain how Vogue handles all the products it receives? And those are just the two most prominent examples I could think of; you can probably come up with plenty of others.