Malu Fernandez and her problem with blogging
March 13, 2008
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.
