Got a call from a reporter earlier in the week who came across my BlogKits Blog Honor badges and wanted to talk about fake blogs, or flogs. The piece he put out ran in the Sacramento Bee, you can read it here. I come in at the end.

But that’s not going far enough for some in the blogosphere. Jim Kukral, a blogger and online journalist, has created graphical badges for bloggers to post on their sites, promising readers they aren’t stealthily selling their opinions to marketers.

“We have hundreds of people already using the badge voluntarily,” Kukral says. “It’s OK to try to make money with a blog, but not fool you. The whole reason blogs work is based on people being honest with each other.

“It’s like sitting in a room with your friend having a conversation. If your friend found out that you’re lying and were being paid by Sony to go to talk about the product, what’s your friend going to say to you? They’ll say, ‘Why are you pitching me things?’ You won’t have that friend long.”

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