A fair arena of debate

Spinoza said "given a fair arena of debate, truth will prevail over falsehood". Increasingly, spin is hitting the wall that is that fair arena - Edelman's (latest!) attempts to run a fake blog for WalMart (Publishing2.0) have collapsed as the truth of their fakery came out thus proving, if any further proof were needed, that just spinning your brand is a strategy wholly dominated by actually making products your customers want to buy in a way that your customers don't think is evil. Scott says,

"if you have a problematic brand like Wal-Mart or GM, where a lot of people think your product/service is socially irresponsible, for example, then letting people control your brand is going to perpetuate your image problem."

Indeed. The solution really isn't to go for tighter control of the brand. There's that fair arena just sitting there watching you do it. The product, the service, is the brand. Instead, make something good. Make it responsibly. We'll tell each other. Promise.