...Not to hire this PR firm.

I kid you not - here's their take on how bloggers should have handled the Edelman/Microsoft Vista laptop-gate:

Bloggers: Be professional and human, don’t crucify a company for deeming you worthy of free products to review and own! You might want to mention professional reviews of technology are "loaned" products like MP3 players, TV's and electronics. They don’t get to keep them... they essentially are "on a tour" following the tech press circuit, like a rock-star. Honestly, if you’re a Blogger and you get to keep a product like that, the human thing to do is say thank you.

So, given that Edelman has such a commanding presence online, I decided to start asking some folks who've written on the Microsoft Vista laptop-gate a simple question: how do you think Edelman's PR stunt with Microsoft affected the quality of Edelman's mindshare online?

First up, Andy Lark, who recently placed blame squarely on Microsoft:

I'm not sure that Edelman had anything to do with the current Microsoft stunt although they've definitely been associated with it. This is a classic case of extending traditional PR tactics into the blogosphere. A very wrong move.