We're talking about the Bloggers' Code of Ethics this week, but I'd like to
explore a tangent today.

We bloggers, at least those working in the U.S., have the luxury of writing anything we feel like. Other than those who are employed by some corporate or nonprofit entity and blog as part of their jobs, we have no one looking over our shoulder and saying "you can't do that."

Today I had a long phone call with a client in a particular slice of the financial services industry. I had sent her a draft press release, and one of her concerns was that she was not allowed to use the word "investment."

And last month, I was speaking at a national convention, and the man who hired me told the audience that some of his motivation for bringing me to speak about ethics was his concern that if his industry didn't self-police, they would face government regulation that would sharply limit their actions and their income.

Then, of course, there's Sarbanes-Oxley, the U.S. law that requires corporations to meet some basic, minimal ethical standards--and process a huge amount of paperwork.

Seems to me, we as bloggers should abide by the Code of Ethics (and perhaps sign the Business Ethics Pledge) out of self-interest as well as out of common human decency.