David Sanger Photography - Latest Comments in New FTC Rules that Travel and Photography Bloggers Should Note

Re: New FTC Rules that Travel and Photography Bloggers Should Note

Eurail Pass Guide — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:33:11 -0000

sounds like another layer of bureaucracy to me.

Re: New FTC Rules that Travel and Photography Bloggers Should Note

JimmieBlake — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:33:34 -0000

What's their business with what I choose to photograph and what not? If I'm going on carnival cruise lines and it just strikes me to take a snap shot, do I have to explain myself to someone, so that someone won't think it's unfair publicity? It's an attack to journalists everywhere, it's an enclosure to our liberty and right to get our information from wherever we choose to. We shouldn't have to pay anything for it, because we're doing our job in bringing information to people.

Re: New FTC Rules that Travel and Photography Bloggers Should Note

Per-BKWine — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:14:19 -0000

I'm not sure to what extent this thing with disclosure is a very US thing or if it's just a subject where we have different opinions.

To me it is a non-issue.

Most journalists (including photographers) could not continue their activity if they were to pay for everything themselves and not receive various sorts of "freebies".

And why should bloggers be required to 'disclose' when print press is not? Can you imagine a sports journalist paying for the ticket to the sporting event? Or have you ever seen a disclosure on the sports pages. Or a music critic? What about the fashion pages of Vogue? Do you think that the magazine buys all those designer clothes in their shoots? Or do they carry a disclosure?

Readers are not so easily fooled.

W Blake Gray wrote an interesting piece here: http://wblakegray.blogspot....

And what use is a disclosure anyway? Should the reader think "hm, there was a freebie involved here so I will not really believe what they say in this particular article. But the other ones are fine."

No. It's a question of blogger/writer/photgrapher ethics and morale. You cannot stipulate that with an FTC rule. If you are "swayed" by freebies, what difference does it make if you have a disclosure?

You cannot fool the readers forever so if you are corrupt you will sooner or later loose your credibility and your readership and your customers. Or so I hope.

I wrote a longer piece on it here: http://www.bkwine.com/blog/... where I also quote your post.

Re: New FTC Rules that Travel and Photography Bloggers Should Note

jimgoldstein — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:22:05 -0000

Full disclosure can only be a good thing. Thanks to the transparency of the online world a lot of folks are just now learning about long standing relationships and perks for this type of thing. I'm not sure that anything will change other than a modest bump in reader/viewer scrutiny. Negative perception only jumps when someone isn't forthcoming with information. At that point everyones imagination runs wild which is never a good thing.