I try not to do too many navel-gazing, whither-the-future-of-criticism posts, but today’s New York Times feature on bloggers paid to do sponsored posts promoting products is the sort of thing that gives me the heebie jeebies.  

In a nutshell: successful bloggers can now earn income and freebies by doing posts and videos for advertisers like Healthy Choice, Blockbuster and—and now they’re getting into my house—TV shows. The bloggers get paid; the advertisers, in a cluttered media market, get marketed to an engaged audience through someone perceived as trusted and “real.”

The defense of the bloggers in the piece is that they identify their sponsored posts and don’t praise products they don’t genuinely like. I’m willing to believe that. It still gives me the heebie-jeebies.