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July 26, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
'Straight Talk' About Blog Disclosures
Republican blogger Patrick Hynes has insinuated various ethical lapses by leading Democratic bloggers Jerome Armstrong, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Matt Stoller. Now courtesy of a fellow Republican blogger, Jim Geraghty of National Review Online, Hynes has been forced to respond to ethical criticisms of himself.
Geraghty broke the news that Hynes has been on the payroll of Straight Talk America, the political action committee of GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for political consulting. Geraghty noted as an example that Hynes' firm, New Media Strategics, was paid $16,500 by the PAC on May 23.
The information apparently was not easy to confirm, however. Geraghty said he didn't get much straight talk from McCain's PAC in his intial contact with the executive director, and Hynes only publicly disclosed his relationship with McCain after Geraghty began pursuing the story.
Before making disclosures at both his company blog and his political blog, Ankle Biting Pundits, Hynes wrote favorably about McCain and critically of one of his potential 2008 presidential opponents, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Geragthy provided links to those entries.
"The error is in not informing readers," Geraghy wrote. "I think bloggers have an obligation to disclose their relationships to entities in which they have a financially compensated relationship or interest. There’s no reason to think that anything Hynes wrote is anything less than his unvarnished opinion; but his readers ought to be informed that McCain is not just his favorite presidential contender; he is, ultimately, a client."
In a note to Geraghty, Hynes agreed that he should have disclosed his relationship with McCain sooner. One reason Hynes said he didn't do so is that "I was not being paid 'to blog'."
He was being paid for his knowledge about the blogosphere, however, because that is precisely how he markets himself at New Media Strategics. The "about us" page dismisses "traditional public relations executives who have plenty of experience working with the old media but wouldn't know a blog from a vlog or a podcast," and it touts Hynes as an expert in using such tools to convey a message.
"Beyond 'commenting on other people's blogs,' President Patrick Hynes and his team design unique new media communications plans for each NMS client," the company site says. "Patrick Hynes is a blogger. He understands how bloggers receive and process information. What energizes them and, just as [important], what turns them off."
The controversy surrounding Hynes is even more interesting in light of some of the criticisms he has leveled against top bloggers on the left. He has been particularly critical of Stoller. At The Channel Changer, a blog of his focused on compeititon in the communications industry, Hynes has called Stoller a "suspected paid Google/MoveOn shill" in the battle for "network neutrality."
Hynes has not provided evidence of the alleged financial relationship but wrote this last month: "I have dug as far as it appears I am able to dig. Matt Stoller has ignored three e-mails from me, and I have commented on his net neutrality rants over at MyDD. But he evidently is following Kos' marching orders and the secret of who is actually paying for this spontaneous outpouring of emotion from the 'netroots' ... is safe."
Hynes has not yet responded to my request for comment about how his now-confirmed work for McCain is any different than the unproven insinuations that Armstrong, Moulitsas and Stoller have been paid for but not disclosed some of their blog-related activism on behalf of pet candidates or causes.
UPDATE: Mark Tapscott has added his voice to the criticism of Hynes: "It ought to be Rule One among politically active bloggers that the financial relationship should be acknowledged whenever you post on behalf of a candidate who is paying you. Better you disclose it first than somebody else at a less opportune moment, right?"
And Tim Chapman observed: "I think Hynes is handling the whole thing quite well. ... This just goes to show that on the right side of the blogosphere, credibility, transparency and full disclosure are cherished values." Like Tapscott, though, I have to wonder how cherished those values really are when the transparency and full disclosure come after bad publicity.
A reader at Ankle Biting Pundits made an astute point. "Unfortunately, this case is only a snowflake on the tip of an iceberg," the anonymous commenter wrote. "There are huge numbers of political operatives pretending to be average citizens posting blogs and comments under fake names."
Posted by Danny | 10:07 AM
