Dave Winer:

...the story is breaking that Dean For America paid independent bloggers like Kos. We had the link here earlier this week, today it's in the Wall Street Journal. Perfect timing, with a conference coming up on blogging, journalism and credibility. In case you're wondering: It is a problem. Kos couldn't take the money without disclosing it, apparently he did, once, but that probably wasn't enough.

Kos disclosed his contract with Dean For America on the Daily Kos home page, right under the logo, continuously for the entire length of his DFA contract. The word "Disclaimer" was a hyperlink to a full post describing the contract and what he was doing for Dean For America.

Jesse is right - anyone who says this is an ethical problem has no business talking about ethics. But it's easy to guess how Dave fell for this - the disclaimer wasn't in every post of the Daily Kos RSS feed.