Malu Fernandez and her problem with blogging

Apparently, controversial Manila Standard columnist Malu Fernandez is still not done with bloggers. In her newspaper column on March 10, Fernandez has got something new to say about blogging and bloggers.

For the uninitiated, Malu Fernandez achieved notoriety because of an August 2007 column in People Asia where she talked about her supposedly annoying experiences riding the plane with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The column sparked massive protests from OFWs and bloggers who found the article offensive. Bloggers then pushed for a boycott of the Manila Standard until Fernandez was fired. She allegedly resigned but the newspaper did not accept her resignation.

In her new column article this week, Fernandez derided bloggers for not being like journalists who “adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech.” She also described blogging as a “slacker job or a medium and pastime for lonely people to connect.” She advised bloggers to turn off their PCs and step outside the comfort zone so they can “find some real live people to talk to instead of typing away in cyber space.”

True, blogging in general is still not considered “journalism.” But then again, a lot of bloggers don’t attempt to pass themselves off as “journalists.” Most of them still regard their blogs as a “personal diary” where they report on events and issues from their own point of view. Blogs may not necessarily be good or objective sources of information, but the good thing is, they don’t pretend to be.

Fernandez’s problem with bloggers is that she sees herself different from them. And indeed she is, because she lives in an ivory tower, protected and backed by a real newspaper institution and a tag that says “Hey, unlike you, I am a true journalist!”

The problem is, Fernandez seems to think that people like her are the only ones who have exclusive rights to the medium of public communication. In this day and age, however, they don’t anymore.

You lambast a newspaper columnist and she responds with scorn on the next article.

You lambast a TV broadcaster and your shady dealings are next week’s features on his shows.

You lambast the Church and priests will have a ready sermon on their pulpits by next Sunday.

Now, don’t expect OFWs to just shut up when you lambast them. Unlike newspaper columnists, TV broadcasters, and priests, however, they don’t need a column or a TV show or a pulpit to defend themselves. They have their blogs.

Malu Fernandez cannot accept the fact that, through blogs, the OFWs and slackers she chided are now able to bring her down from her ivory tower. And that really is her problem with blogging.

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