BLOGGING ETHICS: Alarming News writes:

The story of Armstrong Williams allegedly taking cash from someone in the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act is bizarre. I have no doubt that Williams truly supports the Act, but taking money for publicizing it without disclosing it seems very wrong to me. I agree with Jonah Goldberg that if the Clinton administration did this, conservatives would be outraged. This is no different.

I’m somewhat struggling with similar issues in relation to my work and my blog.

Read the whole thing. I’ve never had anybody offer me money in exchange for blog posts (bogus claims regarding Wonkette notwithstanding), but I have been offered substantial amounts of money to author opeds furthering the agenda of some people. I declined; even if it were an opinion I already held, undisclosed third-party payola just seemed wrong to me. I think the same thing’s true for blogs, which is why I think that the DaschlevThune folks should have disclosed the money they got.

On the other hand, payola for opeds of the sort I describe above isn’t so unusual that people should think the blogosphere is more likely to suffer from undisclosed payments than other areas — something that the Armstrong Williams case illustrates, too, of course. I’m rather skeptical of the notion of some sort of Official Blogger’s Code of Ethics, with blogs that sign on displaying the seal of approval. Kind of reminds me of the Comics Code Authority, and I’m generally skeptical of those kinds of ethics codes anyway.

I think that overall, the best protection against that sort of thing is for people to read a lot of blogs. Astroturf blogging is likely to ring false, and at any rate a blogger, however popular, doesn’t enjoy the kind of quasi-monopoly position that a newspaper journalist or a broadcaster does, making efforts to shape the debate via sub rosa funding far less likely to be successful.

UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg notes an inappropriate response.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis has a thoughtful response:

He screwed up and it’s all the more amazing because it would have been so easy not to. It’s all about transparency.

Yeah. Ethical flaps are very often contrived, and — as noted at great length here — we should be as skeptical of those making (or contriving) ethical charges as of their subjects. But this doesn’t seem to be such a case. Jarvis also offers some excellent advice for businesses wanting to use blogs for PR:

If a marketer wants to get consumers to try a product and talk about it, everyone should be transparent about that as well: Send out samples of the product and if people like it — or don’t or don’t care — they’ll say so. If you have a good product, you’ll win. If you don’t, you’ll learn. I, among many bloggers, now get publishers emailing me asking whether I’d like review copies of books (which would be great if I weren’t so busy reading and writing blogs that I don’t have much time for books anymore). If I write about a book I got for free, I should say so.

Hmm. I do get books for free sometimes, but though I’ve mentioned that in general I don’t always mention that in all of the the posts (I use “in the mail” to indicate that it came unsolicited, usually, but free review copies are such a well-established custom that it seems implicit). Generally the nonfiction books come from publishers, and the fiction I buy myself, though there have been a few exceptions (e.g., John Scalzi’s book). Sadly, nobody sends me samples of digital cameras, iPods, etc.; when I blog about my new Sony digital camera or whatever, it’s one I bought myself. If people did send me samples, I’d certainly mention that.

But free samples aren’t the big question; it’s outright payola. There’s a lot of that out there in the Old Media (usually disguised slightly in terms of free travel or gifts, but not always) — much more than is reported on by the Old Media, or even by bloggers — but we should try to limit it in the blogosphere. But the ultimate lesson is that you’ve got to make up your own mind. Every successful system attracts parasites, as Thomas Ray once said, and the blogosphere is a successful system.

On the other hand, some people are embracing payola. Reader Rick Horvath writes:

If you have not already been offered money to post on your blog since your post last night, how about I make you your first offer?

What would it cost to post something like:

“As a customer service to all the single women out there, I wanted to point out that there is a stunningly handsome (okay, the stunningly may be an overstatement), intelligent and funny 27 year old attorney working in the Philadelphia area by the name of Rick Horvath. Right now, he’s looking for a similarly funny and intelligent woman who would enjoy port and classical music, especially opera. Ladies, grab him while you can!”

Instapundit personal ads… the wave of the future!

I don’t think so, but consider this one a freebie, Rick. Good luck!

MORE: Further thoughts from La Shawn Barber.

STILL MORE: Eric Scheie has a rant that is both amusing and informative.

MORE STILL: Just noticed this post by Mitch Berg on blogging, credibility, and ethics that’s relevant, though it predates the Armstrong Williams business.

TSUNAMI HELP REQUEST: Reader Mike Weatherford emails:

I’ve been working since Saturday with the folks from the Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog, trying to do my bit to help reduce the suffering of the people suffering from the tsunami disaster. I don’t have any loose cash, so I’ve been donating the only thing I can give – my time and my knowledge of imagery analysis. We’re trying to do two major tasks with the Ground Zero Information page: provide a single reference point for information on the extent of damage – including photographs – of the tsunami impact areas, and to provide information on what’s being done, and what still needs to be done, to help those affected. The one thing the group needs desperately is more willing hands, especially people knowledgeable in HTML, XML, and the Internet. We also need more imagery. I know the military is working on the same issues, but their imagery is classified (I know, I’ve worked enough of it!). Anything that you – or anyone – can do to give us a hand would be appreciated – not only by us, but by the thousands of people that our effort may help, even if it’s a small amount.

If you can help ’em out, drop by and let ’em know.

ED MORRISSEY HAS AN EXCLUSIVE PHOTO of King County voters turning out in the last election. Something smells funny here . . . .

UPDATE: There’s video, too!

JOHN HINDERAKER OF POWER LINE has been reading the Gonzales transcript and says that there’s much more there than the news stories captured.

MORE BOOKBLOGGING: Just noticed that Mark Whittington, who has a blog and an alternative-history novel of his own, has a list of recommendations for readers of alt-history. I’ve read a lot of the books on the list and liked ’em, which suggests that (from my standpoint, anyway) his taste is good.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (free link) reports on the Bush Administration’s second-term Second Amendment stance. It sounds somewhat promising, which would certainly represent an improvement over the rather weak efforts of the first term.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Europe is getting serious about moving ahead of the Unted States in nanotechnology, according to items here and here.

POLITICALWIRE: Dead people were voting in Washington State.

IT’S ANOTHER UKRAINE UPDATE over at Le Sabot Post-Moderne.

STEPHEN GREEN IS BACK, and offering literary advice to Paul Krugman.

LIGHTER READING: Some people want to know what I’m reading since I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Not enough, since I’m busy with getting ready for the new semester and various family duties. But I got the new Harry Turtledove book, Homeward Bound, the other day, and I’ve started it. I’ve read enough to be confident that if you liked the other books in this series, you’ll like it.

A PRETTY GOOD YEAR FOR SPACE: Jim Muncy looks at two significant victories in 2004.

A CORDLESS PERCOLATOR? Well, not really when you read the fine print, but the most amusing part to me is where percolator-partisans hold forth on the obvious superiority of percolation over drip. It’s like Mac vs. PC in a different setting.

Yeah, I know: From stew-blogging to coffee-blogging. But it can’t all be about torture and deadly natural disasters, after all.

UPDATE: My secretary-turned-combat-engineer emails from Iraq with combat-coffeeblogging:

It is interesting the things that one is introduced to in a forward deployed environment. European coffee brewing techniques were not in the recruiting literature. I have been using a French press (freedom press?) while here in Iraq. I brew Community Coffee’s (a brand from Baton Rouge) Dark Roast and it takes about fifteen minutes. The “3 cup” capacity fills my 16oz travel mug. Normally, in the field, I use a Coleman backpacking stove but on larger operations we have a member of my platoon who brings along a two burner white gas Coleman stove. (Who knew the many ways Scouting would prepare me for the Marine Corps!)

While waiting for instapundit to load, a dog-handler friend of mine noticed me playing “minesweeper.” He remarked, “Don’t you get enough of that?”

Heh.

TAXPROF REPORTS:

The House and Senate yesterday passed by unanimous consent legislation (H.R. 241) to permit taxpayers to claim charitable deductions in tax year 2004 for donations they make for tsunami disaster relief until January 31, 2005, instead of having to wait until next year’s filing season. Only cash gifts made specifically for disaster relief are eligible.

That seems like good news.

JOHN COLE notices something odd from Ted Kennedy.

UPDATE: The Mudville Gazette offers a ten-question Abu Ghraib quiz that I’d like to see the Senators take. And, for that matter, a lot of the journalists writing on this subject.

And questions about line-blurring are raised here. Is wrapping someone in the Israeli flag comparable to rape?

COINCIDENCE? OR A SWIFT-ACTING PUBLICIST at Oxford University Press? I mentioned Sandy Levinson’s new book, Torture: A Collection, (including essays by people ranging from Alan Dershowitz to Jean Bethke Elshtain) the other day, and yesterday a copy appeared via FedEx. Looks pretty interesting, and obviously topical at the moment.

COMPARE THIS POST by Chris Anderson on RSS feeds, with this post from Asymmetrical Information.

HERE’S A GUIDE to decoding CBS’s forthcoming RatherGate statements.

THRESHOLD OF WORRY: Some thoughts on politics and risk assessment, over at GlennReynolds.com.

In a (somewhat) related development, Tom Hill suggests that it’s time to revise the Torino Scale.

THE BELMONT CLUB: “How did we get to where the only choices are between the impractical and the inadmissible? Possibly by the route of partisan politics.” I’ve also updated this earlier post rather extensively.

ALEC RAWLS notices a parallel between Ted Kennedy and Kiefer Sutherland that had not occurred to me.

UPDATE: This, on the other hand, is a perfectly natural confusion.

SOCIAL SECURITY: I haven’t been blogging much on social security reform, but Tom Maguire has been covering the subject like white on rice. And Arnold Kling has more, including this: “In fact, a reasonable test to give each political party is this: what specific proposal do you have for eliminating the Social Security funding gap? If the Democrats propose a specific tax increase plan, such as the Diamond-Orszag proposal (see the analysis by Victor Davis), then they will be acting responsibly. Conversely, if the Republicans were to back away from their proposal to change the indexing formula, they will be acting irresponsibly.”

HEH.

ARTHUR CHRENKOFF has posted another link-rich tsunami news roundup.

NOOO!!!

Just as we get rid of Scott Peterson — well, once Matt Lauer stops airing his daily Amber Frey shows — we will get the Michael Jackson trial and it will take over all available media, knocking the dead in the Indian Ocean off the front page and the lead story on the evening news. It will be all-Jacko-all-the-time and I, for one, am dreading it.

Me, too.