What's the price of a blogger's soul? In some cases, it's as little as dinner with a guest at a nice restaurant.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "As online food sites become increasingly influential in the restaurant business, chefs and owners are plying bloggers with free meals to get good write-ups. Some are also posting favorable reviews about themselves on popular Web sites or becoming Internet scribes."

This is as clear a violation of journalistic ethics as you will find. Real food critics dine anonymously and pay their own bills -- a known critic is likely to receive special treatment, which of course could make their experience less than indicative of what their readers can expect.

And then there's another problem: Is it really possible to be objective in a review when you aren't feeling the sting of having paid for it?

Blogs are certainly giving the traditional media a run for their money. But in order for the coup to be successful, they will have to adopt some of the ethical standards of the traditional media. For what it's worth, this is the policy for all blogs in the Weblogs Inc. (owned by AOL; includes BloggingStocks) network:

• Bloggers do not receive free products or services from the companies they write about.
• Bloggers do accept review units (e.g., a new cell phone at Engadget, a video game at Joystiq, or a week-long car loan at Autoblog); however, when they're finished reviewing products, they return these items to the manufacturers. If the manufacturers do not take the items back, we give them to our readers. This is the same editorial policy as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Time Warner bought up GameDaily, a video game review site, from Gigex. That will add to AOL's presence in the gaming world following Time Warner's annexing sites like Joystiq -- part of this WeblogsInc. network of blogs. The sale also includes GameDaily BIZ, a site for gaming industry professionals. According to the press announcements I've seen, the AOL video game staff will be integrated into the GameDaily staff, and not the other way around.

The stated intent here is to maintain an entity that is much more GamesDaily than AOL Games in character. GameDaily.com has a Q&A with AOL's Ralph Rivera explaining the purchase. Rivera says AOL's "not looking to change anything" in terms of GameDaily editorial content, anticipating that the changes that will result from the purchase will be along the lines of improved infrastructure, download capabilities, wider distribution as part of the network, etc. He also said AOL wants GameDaily to be its "premier website" for video gaming related content.

Our pals over at Joystiq, are not only blogging live from E3, the gaming industry's massive convention going on now in Los Angeles, but are also keeping an eye on Wall Street, where they picked up on a Wedbush Morgan analyst note. Analyst Michael Pachter worries about whether developers will create fewer games for Microsoft's Xbox 360 since the controller lacks the motion sensors that Sony and Nintendo's new devices both have.

Pachter writes, "Ultimately, we think that many developers will opt to make games for the PS3 and the Wii, and will not make the same game for the Xbox 360, giving Sony and Nintendo a content advantage over Microsoft."

But Xbox fans and Microsoft shareholders got some good news on the gaming front yesterday. Sony just priced its upcoming console at $499, while Xbox sells for $399 (or $299 for a basic version). That should even even the playing field somewhat, even if Xbox doesn't shake, rattle and hum like PS3.