The blogosphere's still got its knickers in a twist over Microsoft's "gift" of Acer laptops to a gaggle of bloggers.
No need to hammer home the obvious: It's perfectly okay for a pundit to accept an expensive freebie from a company he or she covers as long as he or she knows that credibility flies out the window.
Review machines must be returned -- something that the giver (PR agency Edelman) either did, or did not, make clear. The idea, according to Microsoft's side, was let bloggers check out and review Vista running on a fast AMD-based Acer Ferrari.
The give-back rule is as true for bloggers as for traditional journalists--some of whom, it must be said, have not covered themselves in glory on this ethical point either.
What struck me is that Edelman PR, which engineered this mess, was the same outfit caught up in an Astroturf nightmare for Microsoft—a few years back.
Unless Edelman's goal is to generate as much ink (page views) as possible regardless of negativity, someone there must be a very slooooooow learner.
The earlier effort is detailed on this site which reports that in April 1998, Edelman Worldwide and client Microsoft were very much in the news--and not in a good way.
Microsoft, concerned about image damage from the Department of Justice investigation, had Edelman put together a program to fake spontaneous "grass roots" support for Microsoft. Prominent public and industry personalities were to be paid to submit Microsoft prepared letters and columns to newspapers and magazines as their own. This is known as an "astro-turf" campaign in honor of it's [sic] fake grass roots.
Second point: Internal Revenue Service rules say any professional gift worth $25 or more must be claimed on the recipient's tax return, according to my trusty accountant. This laptop goes for something north of two grand. And, bloggers beware: giving the machine away or auctioning it off won't get you off the hook. Remember Oprah's Pontiac giveaway?
A colleague reminds me that a couple years ago, IBM gave PartnerWorld press attendees a Blackberry plus a month or so of service. Big Blue found out the hard way -- via IRS charges-- that this was not kosher. (Is that why the company was so chintsy last year?)
Given all the hubbub around give-away-gate, my guess is a lot of those Microsoft-Acer-AMD laptops will now be flowing back to Edelman.
Full disclosure: No one sent me a laptop. What am I, chopped liver?
Kidding....
Wanna sound off? Talk to me at: bdarrow@cmp.com
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