A-List Bloggers shilling for shillings - surely not ?

Robert Scoble has made the shocking discovery that:

I’ve noticed that PR types are getting very astute with dealing with bloggers lately and getting their wares discussed on TechMeme.

First they’ll call Mike Arrington of TechCrunch. Make sure he’s briefed first (Mike doesn’t like to talk about news that someone else broke first, so they’ll make sure he is always in the first group to get to share something with you all). Then they’ll brief “second-tier” bloggers like me, Om, Dan Farber, Read/Write Web, and a variety of others. Embargo us all so we can’t publish before Mike does. Then they’ll have a party the night of the launch where they’ll get everyone else to come — if they get even a few bloggers to talk about the new thing then it’ll hit TechMeme by midnight.

Astounding...I mean, it's never happened before - has it? (Oh, it has....)

I read about this from another article on Techmeme - where else

One of the reasons mainstream tech magazines like PC Magazine are so boring is because they're completely dependent on early access to new hardware and software, so companies like Microsoft and Apple use this carrot to keep them from being too critical. They've become product catalogs, which is one reason people look to blogs for a more candid and free-wheeling assessment of new products.

To be honest, I thought this was well known - this is the way of media, the big blogs are all turning themseles into PC World 2.0 and this keeps the volumes up.

Ah well, the next time some A-Lister gets up and berates the Main Stream Media.............

(There was only one other blog commenting on the story when I read it, and it was on Techmeme's front page, which goes to show its not exactly "New" news at all because normally bloggers "pile on" to a story on the TechMeme frontpage if they think it will drive serious traffic)