Journalistic standards for bloggers

Blogging for CNET News.com's Media Blog, Daniel Terdiman looks at the issue of whether journalistic standards should apply to vlogger Amanda Congdon, who while vlogging for ABC News has also been performing in infomercials for DuPont,:

Asked about the apparent conflict of interest--staff journalists at most news organizations would likely be fired if such a thing was discovered--Congdon pointed me to a blog entry in which she not only didn't express any kind of regret for having done the DuPont work, but actually laughed about it.

"As I mentioned in my blog Sunday evening," her blog entry begins. "I made these little 'infotainmercials' for DuPont. I love how that ridiculous word spread like wildfire. That was my intention. A little experiment that WORKED."

Congdon went on to write that ABC had given her approval to do the DuPont spots--in which she touts products like the chemicals that protect firemen from raging heat--but that it didn't matter anyway because she's a blogger and "I am not subject to the 'rules' traditional journalists have to follow."

This would be fine and dandy to most people, I suspect. But by working for ABC News, even as a video blogger, I think she has become part of the world of journalism.

And so her next comment does not do her justice: "Isn't that what new media is all about? Breaking the rules? Setting our own? I see nothing wrong with doing commercials...As Sarah Silverman would say, 'I'd do it again.' In a heartbeat. Bring on the endorsements."

That attitude is more one of someone intent on being a performer, not a journalist. And while bloggers generally don't have to answer to anyone except themselves and, to some extent, their readers, Congdon is in a totally unique category: She is a blog-bred personality who has crossed over to the mainstream. If she was video blogging for ABC.com, that would be one thing. But her work appears on the news site, and that makes her part of the news team.

So, while she is a nice person, and seems to have good intentions, I think Congdon may well want to think about whether she wants a future in journalism. If not, then she's fine. But if she does, she may be burning bridges which she can't cross again.

Read more here.  I think Daniel Terdiman is right - perhaps journalistic standards don't and shouldn't apply to most bloggers and vloggers, but once they begin working for the mainstream media there can be little doubt that they must be held to higher standards.