Mashable Takes the BiztechDay Bait, Shills with Promotional Text Provided by BiztechDay

As I detailed this past week, I was contacted by one of the individuals behind the BiztechDay conference in San Francisco that I am not attending (Andrzej Buszko was unable to provide airfare, accommodations and escorts) offering me a free media pass in exchange for a promotional post on The Drama 2.0 Show.

Although I was extremely tempted to hop on a plane and to rush out to San Francisco to meet Tim Ferriss, I decided to stay home and get some work done instead. I also couldn’t help but feel that promoting something I wasn’t interested in, and for compensation in the form of a media pass that is supposed to be offered freely, would have been dishonest.

I guess my standards were high.

A reader who had apparently seen my email exchanges with Andrzej emailed me yesterday night and pointed me in the direction of a Mashable post promoting BiztechDay.

The reader noted that Mashable took most of the text Andrzej had sent to me and posted it with minor modifications that did little to mask the fact that the text was essentially posted as BiztechDay had requested I post it.

For reference, the text that Andrzej suggested I post:

BizTechDay, Oct 25 Sat, Grow Your Business Using Web 2.0 Technology, Meet Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Workweek), Chief Editor of Yelp, Founder of Meetup & Google Angel Investor, etc
I will be check out BiztechDay 2008 in San Francisco this Sat and the line up looks really awesome!
30 Speakers+ including Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Work Week), Nish Nadarja (Chief Editor of Yelp.com), Christine Comaford (Google Angel Investor), Scott Heiferman (Founder of Meetup.com), Megan Casey (Cofounder of Squidoo.com), 1 Day of Education, Genius Hour Exploding with the Latest Web 2.0 business ideas!
BiztechDay (http://biztechday.com/[1]) is a no-fluff one day technology learning boot camp for business owners to learn how to grow your business using the power of the Internet, Web 2.0 technologies and business ideas that all business owners can apply right away!
WHEN: Saturday, October 25th, all day event
WHERE: Hilton San Francisco
333 O’Farrell Street,
San Francisco, CA 94102
Register online (if you haven’t already) and SAVE $75 OFF ADMISSION using Exclusive VIP Discount for my reader only. (Discount Code: [Removed])

Here’s Mashable’s promotional post:

It’s almost show time — BiztechDay kicks off in San Francisco tomorrow, Saturday, October 25th!

Thirty speakers including Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Work Week), Christine Comaford (Mighty Ventures), Scott Heiferman, Founder of Meetup.com, and Megan Casey (CoFounder of Squidoo.com). There will be one day of education, a genius hour exploding with the latest web 2.0 business ideas that can be applied right away, and more. BiztechDay is a no-fluff one day technology learning bootcamp for small business owners and entrepreneurs. It is the place for you to learn how to grow your business using the power of the Internet & Web 2.0 technologies.

Here are the details:
When: Saturday, October 25th, all day event
Where: Hilton San Francisco, 333 O’Farrell Street,, San Francisco, CA 94102

Mashable readers can save $100. Just register with discount code [LAZY JOURNALISM].

While I’m glad to see that Mashable’s editorial team corrected some of Andrzej’s speeling errors (and poorly constructed sentences), it’s obvious that Mashable copy and pasted the promotional text, albeit with some minor changes.

Perhaps I’m being anal but I can’t help but wonder:

• Did Mashable accept a media pass in exchange for this post? As I noted, media passes are provided with an implicit expectation of coverage but the acceptance of one in exchange for promotion or coverage is a violation of journalistic ethics. If BiztechDay gave Mashable a media pass in exchange for this promotional post (under the same offer that was made to me), Mashable will officially rival TechCrunch on the list of ethically challenged blogs.
• Why would any blog want to promote every upcoming conference? While I understand that Mashable probably perceives some value in informing its readers about upcoming events (and giving discount codes if available), surely Mashable doesn’t see value in all of them? In this case, Mashable’s editors didn’t even take the time to write their own copy for the BiztechDay conference. If that doesn’t tell you how interested in this conference they really are (read: not at all interested), I don’t know what will. And I thought this blogging and social media shit was supposed to be about “authenticity.” Guess not.

Bottom line: this incident is yet another example of the shoddy, lazy and ethically-questionable “journalism” that appears to be the norm in the technology blogosphere.