Edelman And Microsoft Take It Back

Yesterday, we drew your attention to Microsoft’s ploy to influence the bloatosphere with fancy Ferrari laptops running Vista.
According to one recipient, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Microsoft’s PR flacks want the machines back or to be given away. Here’s the email Marshall received from Aaron at Edelman:

Marshall,
No good deed goes unpunished, right? You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well. Some of that coverage was not factual. As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review pc. I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I’m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews.
Thanks for your understanding, and happy reviewing,
Aaron

All these accusations of misconduct I find a bit odd. Big firms buy influence everyday. Why not just admit it and be out front with it? Why not just say, “Thanks dear blogger for being the blogger you are? Have a machine on us!”