So, she writes in her column:
The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech. And whatever a journalist chooses to write about–be it popular or unpopular–we do not hide behind an anonymous name and are resigned to the fact that we have to take as much as we dish out.
Ummmm… “journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines”. Have to adhere is not the same thing as saying they do adhere. Besides, what’s there to brag about if you’re a journalist especially if you’re in the Lifestyle section? Many Lifestyle writers regularly receive freebies from corporate publicists and these publicists’ clients get written about in the newspapers. Is that something to be proud about? The prostitution of journalism?
On the other hand, the same gimmick is being done by bloggers and so many are taking on the self-righteous attitude. Some of these bloggers were the noisiest during the previous Malu Fernandez brouhaha.
Same shit, different medium. Don’t tell me it’s right when journalists do it and wrong when bloggers engage in the same.
And, actually, some journalists use pseudonyms. Conrado de Quiros is not the writer’s real name, for instance.
The condescending attitude is really off.
She also writes:
But blogging, aside from Perez Hilton and the other big time bloggers (you know who you are) is for me a slacker job or a medium and pastime for lonely people to connect.
Weeelllll… Perez Hilton is not exactly my standard of big time blogging unless one makes no distinction between quantity of viewers and quality of output. But then again, that’s just me. And, apparently, Malu and I have different standards.
Oh, and yes, I am a big time blogger, Malu, but never in the Perez Hilton context. Puhleeeez.
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BlogusVox 03.12.08 at 3:21 pm
Malu got your goat Ms. Sassy? She’s pretentious as ever. Just because she writes, that doesn’t make her a journalist. Same thing with Fermin and Solis. We can’t call them member of the press just because they disseminate “news†and interview people.
bunny 03.12.08 at 4:22 pm
What is wrong with her? If she considers herself a journalist, then isn’t there some sort of editor to check her work? Why does she get away with it? They allow her to look like a fool. Poor woman.
Jon Limjap 03.12.08 at 4:42 pm
Great way to get some badly needed attention, methinks.
The Ca t 03.12.08 at 7:53 pm
That blogger he is referring to refuse to monetize his blog even when he was being encouraged by many readers. With unique hits averaging 25,000 a day, he could have recovered back the money that was allegedly duped from him by a certain rich (kuno) scion of a political clan should the readers make good their promise to donate for a dollar for his court battle. He just wanted his money back from the man who betrayed him. In my last visit of the blog, he had already deleted some entries with names of the lifestyle writers/ ahem journalists kuno whose lifestyles shocked me . Malu must be riding again because she was left out among the lifestyle writers that were mentioned in the blog.The death threats and harrassments must have worked.
Yep, the comments are nasty and most of them must have come from their own circle or must have met them personally. One comment that I like was about a socialite who returned her pair of shoes after using them for months. It’s nice to hear from insider. The common tao would not even be able to identify who these people are and vouched for all what have been written. hahaha.
Quijano de Manila is also a pseudonym.
arny 03.12.08 at 9:48 pm
connie dearest,
malu needs attention and we are giving her that again.oh well she needs to be popular again after that scandal pf an article she wrote.about the latest blog about the rich scion and dj montano….give that gay a break ok?? he lost money (unbelievable $70,000 ) and i am giving my two cents worth of his suffering. well the central characters needs to step up. i dont subscribe to phil star wherein the rich scion writes and my morning newspaper is the inquirer. i dont know her side from all of this.i hope somebody would provide me her link
Connie Veneracion 03.12.08 at 10:40 pm
The thing is… who the heck is DJ Montano??? I searched for “Gucci Gang” and couldn’t make heads nor tails of the whole thing. So many Gucci gang tags but it seems that a lot of bloggers are just using the tag for visibility.
JC John SESE Cuneta 03.12.08 at 10:43 pm
Oh lawlz.. I read her article, some are right, some are wrong. One thing I like with journalists is that, like the attorneys, they are so good with mixing the right and wrong, so good with mixing the truths and lies.
Lumping things together into one and judging it is not the way to go. There are different factors to different things. It may be true that other bloggers are slackers who doesn’t go out to socialize and talk to real people, but there are also bloggers who really have social lives and talk a lot with their friends face-to-face.
On the other hand, hiding behind anonymous names is well, she said it all. I have those type of people who does nothing but hide. Like her, I will respect people who discloses their identity than those hiding behind names.
I believe we need to have a distinction between “pen names” and “anonymous/pretentious names”. Usually, people who use pen names do discloses their real identity, some however do not and prefers to keep the “secret” and “mysterious” aspect, but these are those who do not give negative comments, judging write-ups, or flame people to their heart’s content.
Anyway, I agree with some of her points, I don’t agree with some, at least for that article you linked to. I don’t even know her until today :p
And the ironic thing.. she getting what she wants, more hits and popularity boost.
Peace!
auee 03.12.08 at 10:45 pm
She’s still alive?? This woman is an attention-seeking trash. Her opinions do not matter and they never will. The best thing the world can do is ignore her. Maybe, maybe she will take the hint and commit suicide while flying first class back to Greece.
pinayhekmi 03.13.08 at 12:28 am
What does she think her lifestyle section job is? A serious endeavor that makes significant social contribution? Bwiset!
luthien 03.13.08 at 12:58 am
“…But blogging, aside from Perez Hilton and the other big time bloggers (you know who you are) is for me a slacker job or a medium and pastime for lonely people to connect…”
whoa!!! kakaiba talaga itong si malu. lonely people? i don’t think i’m lonely. i just need an outlet where i can write stuff other than the US recession and falling everything. don’t care if anybody reads me. darling malu, try blogging. it might help you with your problem. hahaha.
“…The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech. And whatever a journalist chooses to write about—be it popular or unpopular—we do not hide behind an anonymous name and are resigned to the fact that we have to take as much as we dish out…”
i think what she means here is that we get edited by so many people before anything comes to print or on air whereas bloggers do not have that kind of gatekeepers since they ARE already the gatekeepers of the messages. i think she means meron kaming journalists’ code of ethics that we’re supposed to follow. pero i think some journalist-bloggers are also writing some kinda similar code for blogging. parang nabasa ko somewhere yun. anyway, sa akin kasi since i am a journalist and a blogger parang masasabi ko na…pano ba ‘to…parang apples and oranges? point of debate pa rin yan sa mga journalism schools and it was discussed during the 2007 Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists. it’s not about who/what is a better source of information or who is more respectable but rather the issue should be how the two can benefit from each other’s existence or how one can cope with the existence of the other.
“And maybe one of the future outcomes could be for people like us to just build on our brand and say we can help readers get to the relevant information, and we will have to bring that to the public. We can be some kind of a filter, which we do today. We have to learn how to be the filter in a new environment where there is much too much news available and the readers’ time is precious. It’s new so it’s fun, but I guess (readers) will want us to play that role again in the future.” — David Barroux, US Bureau chief for French business daily Les Echos
malu f. is such a waste of column space.
luthien 03.13.08 at 1:11 am
“Maybe I should start an anonymous blog and really let go… but then again I don’t want to be responsible for World War Three and I would sleep much better being brutally honest in your face than hide behind an anonymous name…”
mag-blog na nga lang sya at para di nasasayang espasyo sa pretentiousness nya.
Jayvee 03.13.08 at 2:32 am
Looks like she wrote a blog entry in a news column. Great job.
Connie Veneracion 03.13.08 at 10:53 am
tingin mo, luthien, magkamag-anak sila ni ruffa? LOL
rhodora 03.13.08 at 10:59 am
Hahaha! You nailed her, Connie!
I happened to read that article of Malu Fernandez on Manila Standard’s website. I was actually looking for your op-ed columns, but the title… “The problem with blogging” caught my eye… so I read on.
Unsentpostcards 03.13.08 at 11:56 am
i agree. ang sa akin, the only sensible difference between traditional journalists and bloggers is the medium. they’re generally on print media; we’re not. in terms of writing ethics, purpose-intention, message, reward mechanism, or what-have-you, halo-halong kalamay na yan. an attempt to box them in generalization only proves narrow-mindedness.
as for malu, if writing that article has made her feel better about her self and what she does, then good for her. what ever floats your bloated ego, di ba? but if she has intended to make bloggers feel apologetic for blogging, then i’m sorry but it hasn’t changed my sentiments about myself with respect to my writing online. same-same pa rin.
Connie Veneracion 03.13.08 at 12:00 pm
Rhodora, actually, Chris provided the link in the Ruffa entry.
Unsentpostcards, galing nga ng standard nya ng big time blogger eh — Perez Hilton daw hehehehe
Kotsengkuba 03.13.08 at 2:32 pm
it seems Malu is trying to get the limelight again by being naturally nasty. and LOL, she’s linkbaiting with the (is that) bryanboy my wife was telling me about.
another LOL for “but never in the Perez Hilton context. Puhleeeez.” hahaha!
if she never wrote about her previous OFW scandal, maybe i’ll think of her as a real journalist (or i’ll never be able to think about her at all dahil di ko naman sya kilala befor that incident). and pointing the difference with a blogger and a journalist - journalists have deadlines, bloggers don’t. journalists write to be paid, bloggers choose if they want to get paid. i choose to be paid, but google slapped me. i’m a big blogger in my own right. this is my third LOL!
just my opinion, connie
Connie Veneracion 03.13.08 at 3:08 pm
Ayayay, thank you for pointing me towards the right direction, Kotsengkuba. I just couldn’t find that “Gucci Gang” thing. So, it’s Bryanboy’s, huh?
Everyone’s a big blogger in his own right. But if Perezz Hilton has to be the universal standard, I’d rather be small.
Jeg 03.13.08 at 3:35 pm
Bilib ako dun sa pagkakasingit ng Hermes out of thin air. It shows great literary skill. OR it shows insecurity.
Kotsengkuba 03.13.08 at 4:00 pm
Connie, sya nga daw kaso nawala na daw yung site. Madami nga nagagalit at hindi pa nila tapos bahasin lahat. hahaha!
PADLOCK 03.13.08 at 4:46 pm
wow, im impress… he can be the next lolit solis
PADLOCK 03.13.08 at 4:47 pm
sorry *SHE*
POYTSPOT 03.13.08 at 5:00 pm
I feel sorry for Malu Fernandez for loosing some of her readers offline, people now aday go online to grasp the latest issues… I also expect Malu to go online in a couple of months or weeks maybe using an ALYAS name to hide from his foes… hehehe
come to think if Malu’s readers are senior citizen….
Pie Javier 03.13.08 at 5:04 pm
Hi Connie! The site for the Gucci Gang scandal is http://www.delfindjmontano.blogspot.com. (Bryanboy is Bryan Yambao and he’s a different Bryan from this scandal…although he used to be friends with the gang). This scandalous blog is written by an Australian Brian Gorell, a scorned ex-bf of DJ Montano. He deleted the site yesterday but heard, its now up again!
It’s really a long read (parang telenovela), so you might have to drinks like 5 cups of coffee to get you through the night. Hehe. 
Connie Veneracion 03.13.08 at 6:21 pm
Jeg, what do call that — brand-dropping? HAHAHA
Pie and Kotsengkuna:
Naku, clueless pa rin ako — artista ba yang DJ Montano? A celeb or something? Blogger and Blogspot are undergoing maintenance.
mari 03.14.08 at 3:41 am
why does she get away with this kind of writing? hindi ba ineedit ang work nya?
Trosp 03.14.08 at 8:50 am
You may compare her to Helen Thomas the White House reporter.
In an interview she said -
Q: Do you think technology is changing [journalism]? That a good reporter will always find a venue because there are so many media outlets now?
Thomas: No, but I do think it is kind of sad when everybody who owns a laptop thinks they’re a journalist and doesn’t understand the ethics. We do have to have some sense of what’s right and wrong in this job. Of how far we can go. We don’t make accusations without absolute proof. We’re not prosecutors. We don’t assume.
Q: So if there’s this amateur league of journalists out there, trying to do what you do…
Thomas: It’s dangerous.
Google her and you’re going have some fun comparing her with Malu. Try Newsbusters.org first. They have her photo.
LOL…
Connie Veneracion 03.14.08 at 1:17 pm
Mari, a column is essentially opinion. Freedom of expression…
You know, Trosp, I’ll write a column about this. But then again, parang sayang naman yung space ko sa newspaper.
Mistervader 03.14.08 at 2:52 pm
She’s back, and with a vengeance.
I was quiet last time out, but this time, not so.
One can only hope that she’s not as dumb as she seems to actually actively incite people to despise her, because I can assure you, I’m staying far away from anything she writes, or any company that hosts her writing.
Pedestrian Observer GB 03.15.08 at 3:44 am
I really don’t have a problem with Malu on her snipe at bloggers but what annoys me is her attempt at political pangitry este punditry…. way beyond her league if you ask me.
Lifestyle from a pig errr person pre-occupied with shallow name brand fixation at a time when 12.2 million souls are not able to afford to put food on their table with poor Filipinos rising to 27.6 million is the height of insensitivity and perverted sense of values.
rowena 03.15.08 at 4:02 pm
i think she is not sure what she thinks a big time blogger is so her ignorant, it appers to me, remark ”you know who you are.” i’m nt sure but i’m thinking if that isn’t, in a way, a form of intellectual dishonesty. i really doubt she reads blogs with substance, and that she knows who big-time bloggers are.
mike 03.18.08 at 11:58 am
“The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech. And whatever a journalist chooses to write about—be it popular or unpopular—we do not hide behind an anonymous name and are resigned to the fact that we have to take as much as we dish out.”
Her previous escapade with OFWs proves she doesn’t adhere to such guidelines, and besides, she’s a lifestyle ‘opinion’ writer. A lifestyle for select section of a society who constantly reassures itself that what they do, write and read about truly, matters. (They aren’t even considered journalists, all they do is praise)
Blogging is a slacker job? Maintaining a blog is more hard work, than writing an ‘opinion’, (which only involves opening MS word and e-mail)
As to the Freebies, if you have time, check out PCIJ’s book on “News for Sale” its a good eye opener
lui lakbayera (first name is my nickname) 03.18.08 at 1:29 pm
malu f’s “the problem with blogging…” article certainly announced her disdain for bloggers.
thanks for reading this comment.
what got me was this: “…blogging… is a slacker job or a medium and pastime for lonely people to connect.” which triggers me to start a research on bloggers by reading their “about me” sections as an initial step to know if malu f’s statement has any basis. (i am more sociologically inclined so i would reserve the loneliness research to psychologists.) subjects will be the top pinoy and filipino-descent bloggers as listed in Technorati’s Philippine Top 100 Blogs which i read in yugatech’s blog. one objective, among others, is to determine if the listed bloggers are in a slacker job since they engage in blogging. I would define a slacker in this case as a person engaged in blogging because one lacks activity (not busy) or shirks from work or responsibility. but more on this, when i get more time in my hands to be able to sit down and draft my thesis outline etc. otherwise, this comment might come out longer than your post and also i hate to be named a slacker.
P Evangelista 03.20.08 at 11:52 am
Hi Miss Connie,
This is Pat Evangelista of Media in Focus. I’ve been trying to contact you for the last few days. Would it be possible to guest you in ANC regarding this topic?
Jayred 03.21.08 at 9:38 pm
I used to be a lifestyle writer for a major daily, but I chose my topics carefully (more devcomm stuff, actually). Lifestyle journalism is not per se, if done right.
Mainstream media can sometimes abuse their “power” to get freebies and all that (I might get into trouble again for saying it here). And yes, I’ve noticed that some bloggers are doing this as well.
I think the trick is to achieve balance in everything.
*****
I’ve observed that some bloggers blog without responsibility. They don’t think of the consequences of their actions. And they usually attack others anonymously. I get Malu Fernandez’s point on this one.
Jayred 03.21.08 at 9:39 pm
ERRATUM:
Oops…typo error. I meant to write: “Lifestyle journalism is not bad per se, if done right.”
Jayred 03.21.08 at 9:41 pm
P.S. BTW, sino si Perez Hilton?
Connie Veneracion 03.23.08 at 1:45 pm
lui, the problem with technorati is that it is links-oriented. that’s why blog theme designers are often listed among the “top” despite the links not having to do with real popularity but, rather, in the nature of “obligatory credits.”
Jayred, I agree that some of Malu’s points are valid. I cannot “get” the kind of blogs that thrive on gossip and/or scanned covers of girlie mags and/or screen grabs from popular TV shows. Perez Hilton? Kinda like a foreign Lolit Solis online. hehehehe
lui lakbayera (first name is my nickname) 03.23.08 at 8:28 pm
oh, so if that’s the case, can you suggest another listing of pinoy top bloggers that is not links-oriented? sorry for this pang-iistorbo, ms. connie.
and welcome back!
Connie Veneracion 03.23.08 at 8:38 pm
Lui, there’s a system called Blogjuice. It was used during last year’s weblog awards (so I was told kasi judge ako) and it combines inbound links with other factors. Not all that accurate either but not as arbitrary as technorati.
Carla 03.24.08 at 7:44 am
Hi Connie,
Conrado de Quiros is not a pseudonym. That’s his real name. His daughter is Miranda de Quiros, who also works as a journalist.
I will not comment on Malu Fernandez’ article, though I think anonymity is an important issue in blogging. It is not possible to separate what is being said from who is saying it, who is employing him/her and what s/he does it for. These are crucial questions for journalists and bloggers alike.
However much we criticize journalistic standards in the Philippines or elsewhere, journalists still have to identify themselves. In extreme cases, like in regimes like Russia, this is a huge risk. In democracies, a journalist has a by-line that allows for him or her to be accountable for the accuracy of his/her reports and other elements in the gathering and writing of a story.
On the other hand, an anonymous blogger (within a non-authoritarian setting) may be ‘fearless’ because there are no consequences to what s/he writes. There is no real risk, apart from irate comments. There is likewise no context within which to judge a blogger’s opinions. Almost all prominent political blogs in the US, for example, are not anonymous. This has to do with reputation-building and accountability.
lui lakbayera 03.24.08 at 8:58 am
thanks again, ms connie. will check blogjuice. also stumbled upon http://www.topblogs.com.ph and might be accurate too. wishing you more clicks and readers.
lolay of california 03.26.08 at 12:11 pm
Malou Fernandez should learn from Hilary:
“I said it was time for standing up for what is right, for saying enough is enough,” she said of the speech. “While we of course must protect our right to freedom of expression, it should not be used as a license to demean or humiliate our fellow citizens.” - Senator Hilary Clinton
Connie Veneracion 03.30.08 at 1:44 am
Carla, I cited the wrong person. I was referring to Quijano de Manila, not de Quiros.