It doesn’t how questionable the ethics of the source are (and we’ve had no response from them yet), if the facts are as presented what Andre did was unethical. End of story.

But hey, nice effort at deflection. Always a useful strategy for campaign operatives. For people who believe in ethics and honesty in their writing? Not so much.

Atlanta Progressive “News” was fond of writing hit pieces on David Scott while endorsing Donzella James for a $280 fee from the James campaign.

Georgia Politics Unfiltered did the reverse. Andre Walker accepted money to write glowingly of Scott.

The difference? The Georgia Politics Unfiltered candidate won. The Atlanta Progressive “News” candidate lost.

The only question is, did “Able” Mable Thomas get her money’s worth from Atlanta Progressive “News” considering the thrashing she got from John Lewis?

Ultimately, a blog is like the living room of a friend or neighbor. You’re invited in to hear the bloggers’ opinions and those of other posters. At Blog for Democracy we encourage front page posters to disclose their affiliations/connections. Can’t say we are always successful, but we do try. Generally, I think it’s usually pretty obvious…

Have to agree with Josh – Mr Walker blogging for CL would negatively affect both the credibility and quality of CL online presence.

If a blogger needs to be called-out for unwritten ethical violations, they typically ARE called-out… as in the case of APN investigating Walker’s source of funding/inspiration, a rather “open secret” it seems. Kinda like Valerie Plame’s covert status, you might say. Seems Mr. Cardinale at APN is simply playing the Robert Novak role in this matter, but I diverge…

Wal-Mart and Edelman PR also come to mind, in the failure-to-disclose, non-political blogging category. The examples are many, and fill vast fields of gigabytes in cyberspace.

Whether Walker will, ummm, blog in this town again, who’s to say? He’s tainted goods now. In the blogosphere though, tainted goods = something akin to a traffic-generating missile.

That and the fact that he works for Vernon Jones, so all bets, not to mention, ethics, are off, in that particular case.

Anyone dreaming of applying formal rules and regs and standards to the blogosphere, and I’m sure they are legion, well… good luck with that little endeavor.

Personally, I sure wouldn’t mind a little pressure in all the right places to “out” Rogue109 over there at PP, naturally enough. Anonymous blogging is nothing if not three miles of some seriously bad road.

Get an ATV or stay on the pavement. Vroom, vroom.

He’s always on his high horse throwing out his “credentials” as a way to somehow justify his often rediculous statements.

I’m glad he’s been called out on it at length again and I’d say that CL would face a massive decline in quality with the addition of Andre.