Naming the UnNamed

Brian Brotarlo made a very interesting point--perhaps I'm becoming too idealistic, that the blogosphere here cannot be or probably nearly impossible to police, given the fact that the Internet is nobody's property and it's too "rascal-istic" to have a body that would police our ranks.

I agree. And what I said was "policing" was writen metaphorically. Police our own ranks, means exercising self-regulation, self-editing and self-analyzing. The "our" here and the "us" here refers to individuals who consider themselves bloggers. If you're a blogger, you'll self-regulate, you'll self-edit yourself.

Also, I have nothing against corporate bloggers. They may write whatever they want to write for as long as it is TRUTHFUL. That's my point. Like in advertising, there must be self-realization that the thing they are writing about are really the attributes or the real brand equity of the product they are carrying. Period. Now, if they are writing falsely, Rom is right, they'll eventually disappear from the face of the earth. Look at what happened to the breast-beating TheHighPriestofSmokes, for one.

For those who misread what I said, the simple appeal is SELF-POLICING.

Now, on the real issue....

Let me tell you a side story. Before I wrote this piece " The Genesis of Every Blogger Byte", I consulted a lot of friends whether I'll write about it or not. Coming from the traditional media field myself (I started working as a journalist some 14 years ago), it pains me to realize that the Pinoy blogosphere is slowly turning traditional. I mean, the only thing "new" about "New Media" is the medium.

For a young blogger like me, New Media embodies everything "new", even in practising online journalism. We all know what happened to practitioners of MSM. And some colleagues of mine is making it their personal crusade to cleanse the MSM ranks.

Before writing the post, I poured my heart out to Juned and the Jester-In-Exile. Hey, we must alert everyone that this is happening. We need to so that we caution them that we need to stamp out this conscious profit-making activity at the root before it engulfs the entire blogsophere and corrupts it. This is my take---I hate to see the blogosphere corrupted by the wrongful (even tortuous act) of just one blogger. Naming him will not do anything good. He knows what he did and he must be given the time and the chance to reform.

How many bloggers wrote posts lambasting MSM? How many bloggers wrote that the mainstream media is dirty, being influenced and outright compromised? Some bloggers even wrote that we must not believe in what MSM writes because most of their articles were paid by politicos?

Question---do we want to go to that direction? Obviously, that's foolish. The only thing going for bloggers happens to be their integrity. If, say, you exchange your integrity for a few thousands, are you saying that you are still different from those who practise journalism as a living?

Like other bloggers, I don't care if you make blogging a living. No one, especially me, would try to convince you otherwise. I am also NOT an Indie. My view that blogging is pure is mine and mine alone. My concept of blogging is as a pure expression of writing (as Marck said) or expanding the Idea, the expression of "Self". Now, if you will accept that this expression of "Self" can be a profit-making enterprise, you are free to do so. Just one request though--make the writing truthful. The problem right now is we don't have a PANA or a KBP who'll probably advise us that what we wrote was plain and simple stupid or outright lie.

I read some comments about this post over at Filipinovoices.com, and they are asking me to name names. Why would I? Will it benefit us here at the blogosphere? No.

Now, if you think that you are being alluded to, the point is simple--REFORM. Here's my suggested guidelines, if you may:

1. If you're a corporate blogger, say so. Tell your readers that you are made to blog about this and that and you are making a living out of it. Period.

2. If you're a blogger who is being paid by a politico, be forthwith about it. Tell it to the world. It's best that way so that your readers will know that what you are writing is about this politico and whether they agree or not is entirely different.

3. If you're a blogger who wants to foray into the world of online PR, again, be forthwith about it. Tell it straight in your blog. Don't go around town convincing everyone that you're influential with this and that blogger and use their names to earn money. That's the most stupid thing to do. Make online PR a "clean" industry. In a time where people are calling for change, we, in the blogosphere must spearhead the movement and try to change the ways things are being done.