An American Lion

I’ve written about how I was proud and honored to take the Mommy Blogger pledge a while back, and I did so in order to go after that one thing that eludes most bloggers, and that is, integrity. Without showing you how much integrity I have, you’re not going to believe any of the crazy things I say. With it, and I have the moral high ground.

This article is missing a key ingredient, and that is a visit to the Mommy Bloggers website, which is called, Blog With Integrity:

On most days, Andrea Deckard can be found in her home office, digging through stacks of coupons and grocery receipts for money saving tips and recipes that she can share with readers of her Mommy Snacks blog.

That is, when the stay-at-home mom isn’t being wined and dined by giant food companies.

Earlier this year, Frito-Lay flew her to Los Angeles to meet celebrities such as model Brooke Burke and the Spice Girls’ Mel B, while pitching her on its latest snack ad campaign.

More recently, Nestle paid to put her and 16 other so-called “mommy bloggers” — and one daddy blogger — up at the posh Langham Huntington hotel in Pasadena, treated them to a private show at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and sent packages of frozen Omaha Steaks to their families to tide them over while the women were away learning all about the company’s latest product lines.

In return, Deckard and her virtual sisterhood filed Twitter posts raving about Nestle’s canned pumpkin, Wonka candy and Juicy Juice drinks.

“People have accused us of being corporate shills,” said Deckard, a Monroe, Ohio, mother of three whose junkets have also included a free trip to Frito-Lay’s Texas headquarters. Deckard, noting that she is up front with her readers about such trips, said they are educational for her and her fans, and “just fun.”

It’s a clear distinction between people who disclose their relationships with corporations and those who do not, and one of the things that the Mommy Bloggers pledge does is is to get people to make that disclosure. Without it, many would be shilling mindlessly. Many more would be turning their backs on blogging as the avocation of craven information whores.