Blogging 101

Blogging has a formal oversight association - who knew? "Word of Mouth Marketing Association" - WOMMA - makes me think of "yo mamma" which is probably not what they intended. As blogging and social networking become more and more used as marketing tools, one question is how to maintain the integrity of blogs i.e. many blogs are sponsored by the organization being blogged about - so is that really "free thought" - do blogs ultimately run the risk of becoming irrelevant because they no longer have an edge?