Saturday, May 3, 2008

Talk About Kettles Calling the Pots Black

IBLOG4: Leftist Journalist Luis Teodoro Urges Journalists to Blog, set examples online, lectures bloggers about ethics and professionalism!

Well so sorry, Mr. & Ms. Mainstream Journalist, but in case you've only noticed now, you lost your Monopolistic Voice of Omniscience years ago and never more shall Citizen Journalism surrender to the small, narrow vested interests that have controlled newspapers, television and radio in the world! Just as the metal engraver Johannes Gutenberg's marvelous technological invention of the moveable type press once empowered the translation and wide distribution of the Bible into German, English, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and dozens of languages to break the Roman Catholic Church's monopoly on Word of God, so too has the physicist Sir Tim Berners Lee's invention of the World Wide Web with its "moveable type" hypertext transfer protocol ("http") empowered Google's Blogger, WordPress, Multiply, Facebook, and hundreds of other free blog publishing services now broken the Main Stream Media's commercial hold on information and commentary.

Here are the funniest lines from professional CPP NPA front man, Luis Teodoro, echoing the tendentious and too-frequent pontifications of his colleague Vergel O. Santos (both of the leftist Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility) at Iblog4.
"Many of those who post information online are irresponsible," he said. "Sometimes, it becomes damaging. It disrupts the democratic dialogue."

Teodoro is proposing that "there should be a means of self-regulation" in blogs. "Journalists should be models online," he said. Be it a blog on political opinion or personal lifestyle, "the principles of journalism should apply."

"There should be verification and fairness even if it’s an opinion piece. There should be an effort to get the other side no matter how little the space you allot," said Ateneo de Manila University communication professor Chay Hofileña, who agreed with Teooro that journalists can set examples online.

Hofileña stressed that journalists should be very careful because the "the standards for a news reporter is higher." She said journalists should come up with more substantial articles online .

"Ethics should show in your blogs," Teodoro said.
AHEM! Didn't Teodoro use to edit and regularly contribute to Ang Bayan, the CPP NPA propaganda ragsheet--that paragon of democratic dialogue? Who knows, maybe he still does.

Next to the government itself, of which the Main Stream Media are virtually a part, I cannot think of a more corruption-ridden, unethical, unprofessional, disingenuous and commerce-driven bunch than the Philippines Main Stream Media. Hiding behind veils of objectivity to hide prejudice, ideology, selfish agendas and vested interests, using innuendo, libelous and scurrilous attacks, whilst piously defending press freedom, what right do these kettles have to call the pots black and then to charge for it.

Hahaha! At least when the bloggers use these same tactics they aren't hypocrites about it and expect everyone else to bow down before their "codes of professional ethics"--which in our Main Stream Media are followed more in the exception than in the rule.

Take the much maligned case of Brian Gorrell and his lurid gay screw-n-tell blog. Heck you can tune in to the same kind of ugly salacious cryptosexual clap trap on AM radio every morning without the honest disclosures of names, dates and places, of course, the better to lure the audience back day by day. You can read the same titillating, gossipy, giggly dick-headedness in the Lifestyle and Show biz columns of the biggest newspapers (like the Philipine Daily Innuendo and dozens of smaller look-alikes and wanna-bes)

For all their pious holier-than-thou attitudes, with their "higher standards of journalism" implemented by ever-so-bribable and brow-beatable editors running pretentious, tabloidish broadsheets and tv/radio talk shows driven by show biz gossip and the latest impregnations and scandalous lifestyles of the nouveau riche and infamous, most of the Main Stream Media are actually lower than the worst of the blogosphere.

The reason for this is simple: the blogosphere is freer, more open, democratic and inclusive, so our demographics are more truly reflective of the citizenry, and less prone to be controlled by narrow vested interests pretending to be objective or neutral. The blogosphere does not have to answer to the bottom line of the craven owners or the dictates of advertising.

You can blog to your hearts content without advertisements, as Philippine Commentary proudly does and always will!

Moreover, the Blogosphere has a superior economic model (transaction costs per megabyte per second are practically nil compared to the main stream). It also has a far better ecological model than the Main Stream. We do not pollute anywhere near printed newspapers do (which constitute the other half of the municipal solid waste stream that plastic is part of, and is equally destructive of the environment -- fact they desperately need to hide and try to.) Printed newspapers will be the first to go extinct in their current form. Once they enter the electronic domain, they lose a lot of their hold on the channels of distribution and control over opinion, commentary and counter-attack.

The Blogosphere is a much more level playing field than the Main Stream. Here, as I said myself during Iblog Two, MEMES RULE. Strong, viral ideas, fit to survive because they are powerful and right can defeat weak and stupid ideas that have for so long dominated in the Main Stream because there, near exclusive access to the Medium IS the Message, instead of the Meme being the Message!

I welcome so called journalists to this brave new world of memetics called the blogosphere. Bring your ethics. Bring your standards. Bring your professionalism. Bring your Mama! But what really matters here is whether your ideas can compete with others and win! Your bandwidth is my bandwidth. My Liberty is your Liberty. Leave your stupidities and inanities at the door, or bring them along and wallow with the rest of the warthogs (which is allowed!). Here we are equals, and you've just come to the party a little late. Now, there's a place at the table for everyone, but don't expect a high place and automatic respect just coz you're so used to one way conversations and call yourself some fancy name that really means nothing to most of us.

Show us the right stuff and be a good sport or go back to the media that is going EXTINCT!

13 comments:

Ben Vallejo said...

That may be the reason why the UP Journ department is experiencing an identity crisis. That's the chismis from academe. :)

Doesn't Teodoro mention that "envelopmental journalism" squelches democratic dialogue?

Sure he can bring ethics on the blog table.

It is just market forces. Blogs may take the money from the blurbs.

In that sense Teodoro is right. Bloggers may end up taking bribe money via PayPal!

Anonymous said...

I'm center-left, but there is a righty blog I like called Gates of Vienna that has to do with terrorism and issues like that. It was a part of "Pajamas Media" for a long time. Pajamas Media provides ad revenue for blogs. But they terminated their relationship with Gates of Vienna when they had a problem with the content of one thread, so now the blog runs on reader donations. If you blog for fun or as a non-profit, you can be free. If you chase the dollar, you will be tied down with strings. There will be pressure not to be "controversial" in order to maximize income.

stuart-santiago said...

galing, djb! BRAVO!

Deany Bocobo said...

No one should worry about labels on this blog y'all. Here the motto, is, we learn the most from those who disagree. We are each other's whetstones. Stay sharp!

Dave said...

Hurrah for the blogosphere! Where there is true freedom of expression! Where a man can call a gugu a gugu!

Well, wouldja believe a spade a spade?

Fundamentally, the blogosphere changes nothing, not in the way of human emotions and beliefs. What it does do is to give freer rein to same, to illustrate it all more thoroughly and so forth and so on. Advantage gained is that a handful of people cannot muzzle larger numbers. Disadvantage is that some peole get to mouth insanities over and over again.
Freedom is a messy thing----and a vital one.

All in all, I am pleased to have the blogosphere and wish to see it extended to every crook and nanny----make that nook and cranny----of the planet.

How else could I have informed those paying attention of how to handle those bells? I love it when a plan comes together!

Deany Bocobo said...

Right you are Dave. Remember the Stone of Scone!

Cocoy said...

djb, "Bravo!" :D

the jester-in-exile said...

mlq3 spoke on msm vs. blogosphere as akin to the age old debate between a "professional priesthood" and "enthusiastic amateurs."

that said, i love being a heretic. great one, djb!

Deany Bocobo said...

Jester,
Let MLQ3 name any "professional priest" I'll show you ten "enthusiastic amateurs" that are better, smarter, sharper and more economical and ecological than such a person. How many OP/ED calumnists and news reporters worth reading does the Philippine Daily Innuendo have and what are the quality and quantity of their total audiences? Most of them don't have the influence or reach that you have believe it or not.

And when the price of oil and ink are double what they are today, along with the environmental damage that paper and toxic processes need to produce it have sunk into society's consciousness, where do you think the main stream media writers will go.

Hehe! You got it. Blogspot, Wordpress, etc.

Iblog4 was rearranging the deck chairs on the good ship Titanic while the choir croaked on.

The Nashman said...

A toast to one of the few blogs I read with NO ADs!

Anonymous said...

nice move on the name-calling. parang kindergarten na nasa playground.

Anonymous said...

Please see this response...

http://kapirasongkritika.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

article sucks balls