Now that blogs are starting to make big money off of advertising will they soon become corrupt too?

[Quixote1818]

I was just reading this article and it got me thinking about this:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/04/28/how-the-most-highly-visited-blogs-earn-money/


What do you think? Will blogs like DailyKOS etc. eventually become puppets like CNN and Fox, controlled by the huge corporations that pay the big bucks?

On the other hand, I think a lot of people who read blogs are smart enough to know when someone has been bought off and that sight would lose huge numbers of visitors.

[aquart]

1. Yes, only the poor are pure.

Nobody with money ever had a good or decent impulse, and if they did, it didn't linger. RIGHT?

[originalpckelly]

11. I don't think that's what the point is...

it's that people who need to have advert revenue from certain sources are more liable to eventually protect those sources.

[Quixote1818]

12. A lot of good people become corrupt once they get use to a certain lifestyle

I think most people start out as good people but as they say, power and money corrupt. Not everyone but certainly some will cave to the threat of losing big advertising dollars.

[ananda]

2. Corporate money corrupts.

nt

[BlooInBloo]

3. This problem is the rationale for blogs like TPM having an open-ads policy

[terisan]

4. I think some will since power tends to corrupt. Others will stay true. nt

[Richard Steele]

5. Some of them. Which ones, only time will tell.

I think you're correct in assessing that it will
be pretty hard to CONCEAL such corruption in a web
environment.

To be successful here, corruption will have to evolve.
This should make for some interesting times.

[seemslikeadream]

6. soon become corrupt?

:shrug:

[havocmom]

7. Maybe, but there is the possibility that corps will see real news reaches people

and there may be a movement toward real news on TV and radios again.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Some blogs

Most make only small amounts of money, or none at all.

This suggests an interesting experiment, though. If advertisers want to make me rich by advertising on my blog, we'll see if I become corrupted. I'm ready at any time!

[sandnsea]

9. Some already have been

It isn't just corporate money that corrupts.

[spotbird]

10. Daily Kos probably has already

From the sounds of it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. As surely as day follows night, corruption follows money

It is inevitable.

[salin]

14. Wouldn't that be counter productive?

They get the ad $ because of their readership. If they cowtowed to corporate advertisers - they would lose readership, and eventually the corporate ad $.