Big Brother Watches: FTC Monitors Blogs

[scook9]

@NuclearShadow you seem to be oh so well informed.....is there ANY evidence to what you are saying?! I mean real evidence by the way, not your opinion, I guess that's why you are so emotional, blogs are the only place you get any attention.

Anyways, all this sounds like to me, is the FTC trying to ensure fair business practices, which I can understand and endorse. It is not like they are wire tapping your phones here, it's the internet they are monitoring, its PUBLIC. The way I see it, this is very similar to the governments laws in place to protect against slander and libel and false advertising.

As to the claims about this site, if you think Tom's is influenced by hardware companies, grow up. Just because they tend to pick X processor company and Y graphics does not mean that they are paid. I have used many combinations of hardware, and guess what, Tom's often is recommending what I have also found to be the best choice. Just because they do not share your OPINION does not make you or them wrong. And frankly, if you don't like what they do here then leave. No one is making you read this site and god knows how many other tech review sites there are.

 

[magicandy]

[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]@NuclearShadow you seem to be oh so well informed.....is there ANY evidence to what you are saying?! I mean real evidence by the way, not your opinion, I guess that's why you are so emotional, blogs are the only place you get any attention.Anyways, all this sounds like to me, is the FTC trying to ensure fair business practices, which I can understand and endorse. It is not like they are wire tapping your phones here, it's the internet they are monitoring, its PUBLIC. The way I see it, this is very similar to the governments laws in place to protect against slander and libel and false advertising. As to the claims about this site, if you think Tom's is influenced by hardware companies, grow up. Just because they tend to pick X processor company and Y graphics does not mean that they are paid. I have used many combinations of hardware, and guess what, Tom's often is recommending what I have also found to be the best choice. Just because they do not share your OPINION does not make you or them wrong. And frankly, if you don't like what they do here then leave. No one is making you read this site and god knows how many other tech review sites there are.[/citation]

I'm pretty sure that by this point, everyone is well aware that game "journalism" is rampant with undercover bribes (the recipient doesn't realize it's a bribe, just a gift such as a free game, piece of hardware, etc). You want an example? Gamestop and the Gertsman debacle.

Also, do you really think they'd aim make hard "proof" public? The reason you rarely hear about journalist kickbacks is because they do a damn good job of hiding it. But you do look like a fool when you say there has been no evidence, ever, because it's all over the freaking plays. Go to Gamesradar and read any one of their stories and how honeyglazed they make particular reviews like many, many other sites. Have fun.

Lest we forget Far Cry 2.

 

[magicandy]

That was Gamespot*, my bad.

 

[Jerky_san]

I don't understand this really.. So people are mad because they believed the internet? And thus the FTC is going to monitor blogs over it? Doesn't that just mean the said person was stupid for not trying to do more research. If 10 people say the same thing its probably true but if 1 person says if I buy a dell over an hp and I get a brick of gold in the process it should leave me to be a little skeptical..

 

[scook9]

Magic Candy - I was not saying that there is no proof, simply asking for some to be offered. You fulfilled that request, thank you.

And you did only address one third of my post.

 

[bin1127]

You mean people actually lie on their blogs? what about my hot 18yr old blond online gf? Surely i didn't send my nude pics to a stranger posing as a teenager?

Lying on the internet; That's just too much.

It's either this or I guess the gov has to filter all your porn.

 

[d_kuhn]

Think about it this way... it's giving you the reader more data with which to measure the value of a particular piece of information.

If you're searching for say a new SSD drive and an article on Tom's says "I was so impressed with these new SSD drives that I got 10 of them" then it would probably make you spend more time looking into that brand drive. Now if instead they said "I was so impressed with thes new SSD drives that I got 10 of them... err... well.. I was GIVEN 10 of them by the company that makes them"... it gives you more information regarding the value of that endorsement.

I guess I don't see how that could be a bad thing... unless you believe that all bloggers altruistically disclose such arrangements, you have no way of really knowing if an endorsement is real or financed.

What that means for me is that I don't really value blog posts regarding products, who knows if their valid or not. Toms is better than most because the tech community is quick to jump all over poorly executed or suspect reviews. Even "customer review" sites (like amazon rankings) can be faked by an insistent marketing campaign... though it takes a lot more work.

I guess I think that transparency is good... if someone has been paid to advocate for a product (or as a means to influence their review) then they should throw it out there for us all to see.

Of course the pessimist in me thinks that Politicians should do the same thing... and that will never happen so why should the net be any different.

 

[ssddx]

The consumer beware...
Articles can be bought, reviewers swayed. Even with new laws against it, I doubt things will be as they should.

Besides, before you take anything for granted you should:
-Read information from multiple (and reputable) sources. Perhaps even look at the officially released info from the manufacturer/originating company.
-If reading user created product reviews, read a few pages to get a general consensus. Often the idiots/fanboys/swayed writers stick out like a sore thumb.
-Do not base your decision on what other people have done, think for yourself and weigh the options given to you.
-Realize that be it the internet, a salesman, television, or printed media: Even with all of the above, information still might be incorrect.

Sorry to sound so negative, but it seems like this is how the world seems to work. Best that you take all the precautions you can.

 

[Guest]

Even store salesmen are not trustworthy!
They could be promoting their own material too; material they earn more on!
Should we sue them?
No!
That would make us no different from them!

I think it's the responsibility of each individual to seek for trustworthy info, and learn from that.
There's no possible way you could prevent a salesman, or blogger, to write or say the truth!
It's upto himself to speak the truth, and upto us to make sure our info is trustworthy by looking at various sources.

In a way American news is tainted, Iraqi news of Al Jazeera is tainted, sometimes we even think TomsHardware is when we see so much push for AMD (which I love btw), and so little for intel or NVidia.
Then again there are other sites out there like tomshardware that bring Nvidia to the front (Anandtech).
Who says they have favor for those products? Who says they don't get payed for it?
And if they do get payed, who cares? It's not like I could make any profit out of that..
People that try to gain money out of this in court, should be sued! (like those wanting to sue Toms for promoting ATI/AMD, and when they bought an AMD video card it did not play the framerates shown in the table)... This is just getting too stupid!

 

[GinoS]

I used to review PC games and PC hardware at a newspaper I worked at 10 years ago. Staff wasn't paid extra for the reviews but were allowed to keep those items they did review. We were not allowed to SELL what we kept. I gave most of the PC games away. I still have a bunch of old video cards taking up space in my basement. A lot of 3dFx stuff! Those items that were not reviewed or the reviewers didn't want to keep were auctioned off to readers at the end of the year (along with books, CDs, DVDs, etc.) The money was then donated to a woman's shelter. The item that fetched the most money was a little snow globe from the flick Fargo. It was of the police woman kneeling over the body. Pretty cool! Most newspapers send stuff back like monitors, entire P.C. setups, etc. There's too many PC games, DVD's and CDs to send back.

 

[jerreece]

[citation][nom]fonzy[/nom]Why don't they start monitoring politicians there the ones taking money from corporations deciding the policies our Country has.[/citation]

I totally agree. The FTC has WAY more important things to catch up on to begin monitoring some schmuck who is peddling the latest product review on his Blogger account. Anyone with half a grain of intelligence would take those reviews with a grain of salt anyhow.

 

[jerreece]

[citation][nom]rooseveltdon[/nom]Yes but common sense unfortunately is not very common[/citation]

Common sense is indeed the ultimate oxymoron.

 

[P_haze420]

Welcome to Fascist, enjoy your stay.

 

[redraider89]

The government and the mainstream-media have been in bed with each other for a very long time, they look out for eachother to ensure their own survival. The MSM was more than willing to trumpet every lie the Bush administration said, quite a few blogs called bullsh1t back then and were ridiculed. ABCNNBS/FauxNewz all but ignored the "election irregularities" of 2000/2004,

At first I thought he was going to talk about how the MSM was in bed with Obama and how the MSM's coverage during the election was a total love-fest, if not complete worship, of everything Obama said and did without a single critical critique of his campaign while tearing Palin apart every chance they got. Yet they ignored the voting irregularities of ACORN and the MSM ignoring the lies Obama told through out the whole campaign and Obama's associations with Reverend Wright, the terrorist Bill Ayers who claims he wishes he had committed more terrorist acts, and the convicted felon Tony Rezko. And how five of Obama's cabinet appointments were tax cheats were downplayed in the media, yet Obama expects us to pay more in taxes. And the latest where the charges against menacing, club-wielding black panther members hanging around polling places were dropped by the Obama Justice Department and now the firing of an Inspector General because he discovered some dirt on an Obama loyalist, and Obama hasn't been in office for 6 months. Obviously SovietStyleCorruption really can't truly care about corruption if he over-looks all this.

But I do think that the FTC, under this administration, the way they want to suppressing free speech with some iteration of the "fairness" doctrine to force opposing views into silence, that the FTC would misapply this authority for political reasons, more like Soviet Style and Chi-com style that SovietStyleCorruption's name really means.

 

[rockerrb]

I don't think this is going to fly. I can write whatever I want online. F**k the government.

 

[kingnoobe]

This is why i disagree with nuclear.. I'm sick and tired of the government stepping into everybody's business, because some RETARD doesn't know how to use common sense.. The government is big enough and has to much power already.

I get why the government does these things. Because people like nuclear need their freaking hand held. Well guess what I don't, and I sure don't like my hand being grabbed because you need it.

 

[anamaniac]

Big Brother can watch all he wants.
He will be distgusted in my sexual fetishes in a matter of minutes.

=)

 

[Milleman]

Does anyone really thinks that, for example Tom's Hardware, doesn't get paid or other benefits for a biased article? This is really stupid by the Federal Authorities. I can write biased articles in a magazine. But I can not write in a biased blogg. Where is the sense in all this? It's more likely that the govenment wants to kill the free speach and take away our freedom. All other reasons are just smoke curtains.