• CNET News, Thursday, March 22, 2007 11 AM

Should bloggers be held to the same journalistic standards as news reporters? No way, says Amanda Congdon, a self-described video blogger who made a name for herself as host of the popular online show Rocketboom. In her reports, Congdon would deliver quick-hit news items, but when it came to big issues like Net neutrality, she revealed Rocketboom's free Internet, pro-tech bias. After helping the online video show rise to prominence, Congdon left to become a producer and host of a somewhat similar report on ABCNews.com, though her work appears on the news site.

Which is precisely why CNET's Daniel Terdiman says that Congdon has now "changed status, whether she believes it or not." He thinks she's a journalist now, and must follow the same rules as the rest of the media world.

Congdon doesn't agree. In fact, she recently signed with DuPont, one of the world's largest companies, as a spokesperson, developing what she calls "infotainmercials." Terdiman says other staff journalists at ABC News might be fired if such a thing were discovered, but not her: She got approval to do the DuPont spots. "Isn't that what new media is all about? Breaking the rules? Setting our own? I see nothing wrong with doing commercials," Condgon says. So, does that make her more of a performer than a journalist? If yes, then she shouldn't be delivering news, says Terdiman.

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