Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven were joined by Kelly Samardak, author of MediaPost’s Just an Online Minute column, where she covers industry parties.

First up on the agenda for these three bloggers: an examination about a New York Times article about how some companies motivate bloggers to review their products using free stuff, sponsorships or money. As a result, readers might not be getting unbiased opinions of products when they read these blogs, but Samardak said that if readers don’t realize what they’re getting, it’s their own fault.

“I feel like when you get an Internet connection, before you’re even allowed to turn your laptop on and connect to the crazy outside world, they should just take a class,” Samardak said. “And understand what is investigative journalism, what is opinion, what is a blog. Understand what you are reading and where it is coming from. Because in the end, the consumer needs to be smarter…We need to educate people because if they still don’t understand what’s going on, they’re not educating themselves.”

Also discussed: sponsored Tweets and the Dunkin Donuts Twitter feed and the news that ad magazine revenues are down.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.