Blogging Ethics

The Federal Trade Commission devised a new batch of rules this week mandating that, starting Dec. 1, bloggers must reveal all the freebies, payments and perks they receive from advertisers. This makes sense. Still, the need to disclose isn't completely new to me as I've been following the Food Blog Code of Ethics as well as the rules of righteousness that I use in my day job. And on the few occasions that my night hobby poses a conflict of interest with my day job, I choose the latter. That's why I recently had to turn down a blogger boondoggle that packaged a night at a four-star hotel, meals with chefs brandishing shiny knives (not to mention marquee brands) and monetary incentives for tweets and prompt posts on my blog. Oh, how I missed out! But it only takes 30 seconds of bad judgment to ruin a career that was built over 11 years.