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Journalist Matt Welch comments on Jason Calacanis’s idea for a blogger code of ethics:

In my experience, the people keenest on Ethics Guidelines are those made nervous by truly free expression, those frustrated by a lack of comprehensible industry standards for outside advertisers, and/or those looking to see how much they can “ethically” get away with.

But things really get good in the comments to Matt’s post, where Calacanis drags out his usual “I’m not in business for money, it’s all a charitable effort to help bloggers” line. As one commenter puts it:

Ethics? How about starting by telling the truth?

Quite.

Emily Jones brings a bit of humour to the debate with her suggestion:

It seems to just to be a push to start a club where members can congratualte themselves for being better than the little bloggers who won’t play by their obviously superior rules and standards. If they have the need to feel special by adopting some standardized “code”, I say let ‘em. Maybe they can all get matching jackets, like the T-Birds in Grease.