PAUL BOUTIN — "Big gadget sites don't link to blogs!" Podtech video blogger Robert Scoble charged over the weekend. His video stiffed, but his post burned up the blogosphere even after he took back his words. What can we learn from Robert?

Scoble had been paid by Intel, he said, to shoot some onsite video [CLARIFICATION: Dan Farber reports, "It turns out that Intel paid a fee to PodTech.net, not for Scoble's video, but for the NPR-style video produced by Jason Lopez." This still means Scoble reported on one of his employer's clients. It could just as well be considered a sharp two-for-one deal by Intel. Notably, Scoble didn't mention the Intel-PodTech relationship while flogging his video. Do you think he'd let a mainstream reporter off for the same oversight?] as part of a press blitz for the company's next-generation chips. To his shock and disappointment, gadget-gossip traffic hubs Engadget and Gizmodo ignored his videos. Instead, they linked to the New York Times' shorter, less technical, and entirely video-free report. The 42-year-old former Microsoft evangelist's analysis: It's a plot! Against him! No, against all bloggers!

So many lessons here.

1. Video is overrated. Especially a 45-minute amateur video with neither editing or babes to spice it up. Engadget editor Ryan Block explained the lack of linkage: "A tour of the Intel plant isn't the scoop of the century — at least not to us.." A 30-second clip of Amanda Congdon getting tasered at the Intel fab would've been huge. Maybe not on Engadget, but huge.

2. Writers aren't TV stars. The fatal thinking among bloggers goes something like, "If my blog is in Technorati's top 100, my vlog will be even bigger!" Tragic. David Pogue's home movies are pleasantly entertaining, but Pogue worked in Broadway theater before he became a tech columnist for the Times a few blocks away. TV and radio talent is much rarer than writing talent — ask the team of professional jokesters who craft Jon Stewart's punch lines.

3. Bloggers are full of baloney. Citizen journalist, or citizen publicist? If Intel had paid a semi-famous newspaper reporter to shoot video at their site, with an embargo date set by Intel as to when it could be published, it'd be linked all over as proof that the MSM is corrupt, lazy, and doomed. When Intel brings in a blogger to do PR work, it's "the scoop of the century."

4. Mainstream success is hard work. Mainstream media attract the best, hardest-working, most utterly ruthless talent. Amanda Congdon makes for a fun podcast, but the backstage talk is she's already flubbed it at ABC. Likewise, the total staff hours of labor and combined staff-years of experience behind John Markoff's NYT report would surprise most blogvangelists. Look at that first sentence:

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, says it has overhauled the basic building block of the information age, paving the way for a next generation of faster and more energy-efficient processors.

5. Reporting kills most stories. Scoble told the world that Gizmodo had deleted his comments linking to his video. Turns out his comment was stuck waiting for approval on a Saturday morning. If Robert had hunted down Gizmodo's editors before making public accusations, he'd have had a much more boring tale: "Big gadget sites slacking on comment approval." Why was Robert's blog post as hot as his video was not? Because it was a good story. Good stories don't have to be true.

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