Points well taken.

“Another thing: blogs arent our lives. At least I dont think so. We have real lives apart from what we blog about. So it’s really not fair to judge someone’s life based on his or her blog.”

Well, that’s another issue altogether. For many of use our online and real lives have already melded that it becomes hard to distinguish and separate them from one another. I would consider myself as one of such, since I’ve been online writing about things since I first got internet at home 10 years ago.

However, nobody can judge anybody else, period. Not based on their blog, not based on rumors, period.

Bloggers can do whatever they like. That’s the beauty of it. I dont think it should be ‘relegated’ to anything. Personally, if mainstream media took the Fernandez affair immediately, *I* would not have given her space on my blog. But, as the cliche goes, that’s just me and I wouldnt dare impose that personal choice on anybody else. Other bloggers are free to write about whatever they want and we shouldnt have ‘standards of behavior’ apart from the standards we already have in real life.

Another thing: blogs arent our lives. At least I dont think so. We have real lives apart from what we blog about. So it’s really not fair to judge someone’s life based on his or her blog.

So should the blogosphere be relegated to “niche” topics? Do bloggers ignore “well-discussed’ issues? Would we have been silent if Malu Fernandez were immediately taken up by mainstream media?

I wonder.

bugsybee,

Thanks

Sidney,

Unfortunately people noticed MST because of this issue. The backlash/boycott might have had the opposite effect.

My initial reaction was, of course, “violent”. Nainis ako sa kanya and my first thought was “ang sarap sakalin”. But to call her a pig, etc. or to insult her because of her physical appearance was something that I couldn’t do even if I thought she was an idiot for flaunting her bad manners.

I also don’t subscribe to the idea of boycotting MST even if I am not a regular reader. I don’t read Malu Fernandez and I don’t think I will ever read Malu Fernandez. I also do not think that people should be free to write whatever they think … freedom of expression should not be an excuse to malign people or to belittle them. But I think it is better to ignore Malu Fernandez than to call for a public boycott.

And yes, we should focus our efforts on more important issues – Cris Mendez and hazing (bakit nakalimutan na yata yung ibang victims? we raise a howl and then forget about them after a year or two!), Jonas Burgos and all the other kidnappings and killings, etc.

More power, Jon!

It is very sad that we’re more concerned about a flapping socialite than uprooting a deeply-ingrained culture of violence.