That fucking logo
A few days ago, I was on MSN chat with a journalist. Don’t ask me who the hell was that. You should know. She went to Ketam with us. Ok.
She asked me why nowadays, many of us have that ugly Bloggers United No Fear logo on our blogs. She asked do you actually know whats going on behind that logo?
Ok. Wait a minute. Frankly speaking, I only know that Jeff Ooi and Rocky are being sued against for defamation… but, who did they defamed? I am ignorant and I only know about this when it came out in the papers and it only about a defamation suit going against them. No further details. They were instructed to remove all related posts or information from the cyberspace. So, I have never read their blogs (jeffs’s and rocky’s) before, and have no idea what they wrote to defame people (or so they claimed). And I’m not from the media. I’m just a guy on the street who’s using the media (wordpress version 2.1 that is). By the way, if I’m not mistaken, it is a newspaper that is suing the two poor chaps.
Now, what is the current status of a blog? I mean, can it be classed as a media which is on par with press newspaper etc???? If yes, just another question. Can someone, let say myself, just walk into a newpaper’s HQ with a CD and say “Hey Mr. Editor in Chief, I want this shit in the front page tomorrow!” ???!! I’m sure thats a NO. Why? Coz, I’m not the guy who runs the newpaper and I’m not a journalist and who the fuck am I? Also, the shit in the CD got to be screened for inappropriate stuffs, checks for accuracy from various sources such as Reuter and so forth.
On the other hand, I can get a blog site up and running in minutes. I can write and publish immediately what I have on the CD. There’s no one obstructing me. I don’t even have to care about its accuracy, grammars, layout formats or anything else. Even, a 7 year old kid can setup a blog.. so who the fuck cares? We bloggers are just keyboard warriors, just wanna type what comes to mind. As I said before, you can read my shit. Anyone’s shit but whether you’ll accept it or not, it is YOUR business. Let say, I write something about science or anything in general, will you really accept my idea? This is the correct formula to calculate gravity force:
G=Pmat
Do you believe this??? I found a new quantum theory of gravity.
Even in Wikipedia, there are so many entries of a person like George Boosh, Semi Value.. just to name a few. Do you actually take that as accurate? Its just for reading pleasure. Anyone can contribute, so accuracy is compromised.
I think bloggers cannot be treated like people in the media because (1) we’re not from the media, (2) we’re not trained like a journalist. So, what we write is basically based on our best knowledge and what comes to mind. We depend on all sorts of information we got from talks in the morning while breakfast at kopitiam to newspapers to various internet sites for our information. Where the fuck is the freedom? I can start a blog in minutes but can I start a newspaper in minutes? It’ll prolly take months or years before I can get a licence to publish newspaper due to license application. So, unless they come up with a system where they would stupidly force us to get a degree in journalism before applying for blogging license so that we can blog, I dont think anything else can stop people churning out shits in blogs.
Back to the fucking agenda. Just why put the ugly logo here? I think thats the way to lend our moral support to that 2 guys. Thats all. Many people have it on their site, so why not me? Joining a bandwagon you may say. Right?
Well, this is just what I wanna say, and I’ve no intention to offend anyone. That’s just the way it is.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
The ugliness of the logo is not the point, I put it up to show my moral support to those 2 bloggers and bloggers in Malaysia. That’s the least I could do.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
you got an interesting point of view, especially on the position of bloggers in the media.
i believe that it is safe to say that bloggers are USERS of a very powerful form of media.
on the defamation suit, i strongly believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
if we accept that blogs are NOT part of what is considered to be “media” then freedom of cyber expression must be upheld. in the event that we consider some blogs a credible source for information akin to media, then social responsibilities must prevail.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:47 am
That journalist writes for a Chinese Daily???
February 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
jemima: she writes for magazines. and pretty drop dead gorgeous in person, if i do say so myself.
muahahahahahaaaaa…
okay, i have had my moment. i’m ready for my reality check now.
February 5th, 2007 at 7:38 am
i use the blog to channel my thoughts,i can write whatever the hell i want coz it’s true, we’re not trained journalists…and besides… i prefer to read honest bullshit and people’s view then the made-up, sugar-coated, politically correct news shit…because they have to comply to that. so…if you want accurate stuff- go for the newspapers, but if you want honest-to-goodness bullshit, well, you can always come to endroog.com..ahahhaa
February 5th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Thanks for the info, Philters.
The reason I asked is that in Sunday’s Sin Chew, there was a write-up on Pulau Ketam.
Dunno what it was about ‘coz I dun read Chinese.
I came across it when I was flipping thru the paper in a kopitiam.. hehe
February 6th, 2007 at 12:28 am
wooh… quite happening here.
philters: I quote you as saying “in the event that we consider some blogs a credible source for information akin to media, then social responsibilities must prevail.” When we consider a blog is a credible source, does the blog owner knows that his/her blog is credible? How will you know if it is credible in the first place? What if he/she had been distorting facts which we don’t realize? Unless we do some research or fact finding on ourself, right? It is up to you believe what you read online. Unless the blog is recognised by a government body, then facts are rest assured.
Unless we are well versed in a topic say for example, how to drive a manual car for dummies, we may bluntly follow a step-by-step guide by someone who’s distorting facts and end up totaling a car. Right?!
Haha. Cheers.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Galli: Yes. Thats what I’m trying to say. Thats the least we can do. Yeah.
tihtahpah: woooh… i can’t afford to pay you for what you said “…come to endroog.com”. What you said is true. Hahha.
Jem: how do you know if the write-up is about Pulau Ketam? You said you dont read chinese… right? No need to hide, if you can read chinese or even if you’re a chinese… just let it be. Just tell us. hahahahha.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:56 am
The only English words that kept popping up on the whole page including the article’s title read “Pulau Ketam”.
Besides, the photos show almost similar places to the ones you guys had posted.
I’m sorry that you don’t trust my words
… when I said I don’t read Chinese.. they truly meant “I DON’T”.
Thanks.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:00 am
conceded. what we find online is not always correct information and where blogs are concerned, more often distorted. so one should always proceed with caution when online.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Well, on behalf of Jemima, I can say that she’s part Chinese, though her hometown’s 90% Chinese. She can’t read in Chinese that’s for sure.
I guess she has her reasons for not revealing about her race too much. But oopsy daisy, guess I partially did. Sorry Jemima! 