The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Next, they’ll put their sister on eBay
: Jason Calacanis is shocked and disappointed to find that the content on Fark is for sale.
: UPDATE: As Ken Layne points out in the comments here, Drew Curtis responds in the comments on Calacanis’ site; says it’s a sales rep who doesn’t speak for Fark policy.
How superbly funny that link was up on TotalFark for about 5 minutes before it became an “un-link”…. *laughs*
I am *SHOCKED* *SHOCKED* to discover gambling here.
Drew Curtis’ response is in the comments here:
http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/3475049847315684/
Drew seems like one of the more decent people of the Internet world. (I know, that’s not saying a lot.) Maybe Calacanis’ charges are true, maybe they’re not, maybe it is a misunderstanding caused by over-eager ad salespeople. (The latter sure happens a lot at newspapers, so it seems likely it could happen to a hugely popular web site.)
Anyway, it is unfair & possibly actionable to state as fact — based on a single post on another guy’s web log — that a publisher sells his editorial space to advertisers w/o disclosing it to his customers/readers.
Drew didn’t say his space wasn’t for sale in his post. He has an opportunity to say that and hasn’t. Fark isn’t the New York Times, but there’s an implicit trust: you can make stuff up, but don’t sell your content without labeling it as such.
Gee, and I thought it was more than a trust issue, say: ASME rules and FTC rules. Advertising has to be labeled, period.
http://www.magazine.org/Editorial/Guidelines/
http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/staff/commercialalertletter.htm