[dschobel]

I have to agree with you. While it is possible to accept gift airfare and hotel worth thousands of dollars and remain neutral, it certainly looks dodgy. Especially if you're a broke blogger.

If the allegations are true, Samsung acted reprehensibly but these guys were naive.

[theorique]

There's a very big difference between:

on the one hand, being subtly 'encouraged' to write favorable blog posts or reviews via enjoyable junkets, and

on the other hand, being expected to act as a real part of the PR team, wear company-branded clothing, and film promotional videos.

One is normal practice in tech journalism. The other is something quite different, and more aggressive. It seems like the bloggers expected the former - not especially naively - and got the latter via pressure and bait-and-switch.

[akldfgj]

Well, the latter is far more honest.

[theorique]

It's more blunt and heavy handed, anyway.

[chris_wot]

How, exactly, is it more honest?

[pessimizer]

Because it makes it obvious that you're being paid to claim to like things, likely in proportion to how convincing you are.

[chris_wot]

What's worse, naive bloggers accepting accomodation and travel for free after making it clear they are independent, and then are forced under duress to cowtow to someone who threatens to leave then stranded in a foreign country; or a a large multinational company that takes advantage of naive bloggers?