Wal-mart, Edelman and transparency

Well, there's been a lot of talk about the fake Wal-mart blog over the last couple of days - and Edelman is the number two search term right now on Technorati. Originally I just added this story to my del.icio.us stream, as below:

MediaPost Publications - Pro-Wal-Mart Travel Blog Screeches To A Halt - 10/12/2006

• edelman help wal-mart launch a fake blog, without disclosing that it's a fake blog. Considering how brutal the likes of Rubel have been with other companies (Dell), this is a real faux-pas

(tags: edelman fake blogs)

but I felt there were a couple more things to say about this.

I am surprised that Edelman and Steve Rubel haven't responded yet - I am sure that if it were another agency / company who were responsible, Steve Rubel would have been all over this. Constantin Basturea is also surprised:

So far Edelman has failed to respond in any way to the accusations that it's behind the Wal-Marting… blog — which is quite perplexing.

I'm particularly interested in hearing what Jason Calacanis thinks about this, especially given his recent attempts to get PayPerPost to act in a way that he feels is more ethical and disclosure-driven. I'm thinking there isn't much difference between the two situations...if disclosure and censure is required in one instance, then disclosure and censure is required in the other (possibly even more so, as Edelman and Rubel supposedly 'get' the blogosphere).

[tags]edelman, rubel, disclosure, fake, splog, walmart, wal-mart, transparency, dishonesty, micropersuasion, ethics[/tags]