Should Newspapers Sponsor Blogs Written by Reporters?

In THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE from today, July 12, 2005 (Page B1) David Kesmodel asks 'Should newspapers sponsor blogs if the content wouldn't make it to print?'

The main example in this report is about Matt Marshall, reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and the SiliconBeat sponsored by Mercury News.

And as Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, says: "blogs often are at odds with the traditional role of a reporter" and "We expect in the American tradition to maintain this role of detached observer and not cheerleader or insider, and blogs for the most part trade on...the idea of inside information and commentary".

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So it looks like (to me), that it is not so much about sponsorship of the blog or blogger, but of the question, whether you can and should write blogs the way you would write in newspapers (and the other way round?), or whether you write blogs, the way you write blogs and with compelling content and techniques and have rules (and make them transparent) to preserve your "brand".