The tech industry, including its associated marketers and journobloggers, is probably the most corrupt outside of what goes on in D.C.
Some of these journobloggers are married to executives and consultants who work for the businesses they cover (see: All Things D). One guy, who was actually barred for life from the securities industry for giving bad information to the public, has remade himself into a tech journalist (see: Business Insider).
One blog network pretty much acts like a giant advertisement for their owner’s consultant and investment services (see: GigaOm), another makes Black Hat SEOs shudder at how bad (and successfully) they game Google (see: Mashable), and then there is TechCrunch, which is owned by AOL. ‘Nuff Said.
Their are also marketers who own shares in the companies they tell people to use (see: Gary Vaynerchuck), and their are celebrity investors who promote companies they have a financial investment in without ever disclosing that (see: Ashton Kutcher).
Oh, and did I mention that Gizmodo bought stolen goods last year, and that CNET was just caught making up a story about a stolen iPhone?
Via Forbes
