What pejorative language? As someone very familiar with the history of consumer protection developments in the US, I would say that muckraking and yellow journalism weren't all that bad -- that's even indicated in my earlier post.

About informational asymmetry, your post even seems to confirm my point that the whole point of consumer protection isn't that there is informational asymmetry.

For those who think there is illegal activity being engaged in by FT-spawned bloggers, have you reported the suspected activity to the legal authorities? If so, what has the response been?