It's official now: blogs are worse than porn
I'm neither a die hard fan nor critic of the Straits Times. But now and then, one of their columnists will manage to produce something that makes me wonder if my subscription to STI is really worth it. I'm talking about the piece: "Porn? No, blogs bug me more" by Carl Skadian (Sept 28, 2005). It's supposed to be about the worries that parents have concerning "children and the Internet", but quickly descends into a rather unconcealed diatribe about--you guessed it--blogs:
reactions coming in fast:
I wake up in the morning to see that--as expected--reactions to the ST piece are mushrooming everywhere in the local blogosphere. There is also a tomorrow.sg entry. Some of the more colorful ones:
- Xenoboy steps out of his post-structuralist mantle to write an Op-Ed: "PAP? No, ST Bugs Me More--with morally righteous and pro-establishment articles on the ST, how do we keep kids from believing everything they read?". As one of the commenters said: "Awesome!"
- Molly Meek died a second time: "If you condition them to believe everything in their National Education classes, in the ST, in Channel NewsAsia, etc, then they will inevitably tend to believe everything an inflammatory, venomous, seditious, subversive blogger has to say since you have effaced their critical abilities. On the other hand, if you want them to critically receive blogs, then you have to be prepared to let them receive their National Education classes, the ST, the CAN etc with trucks and trucks of salt. Find a way out of this catch-22 and you will create your utopia!"
- Singapore Classics sacrificed his "nice warm Grande Mocha" over lunch to respond: "Basically he is declaring war. Throwing one big splat of red paintball on all bloggers. Bad choice." He has quite a bit to say taking Skadian's piece apart, but this one part jumped out. He was talking about the existence of less than objective and in fact openly virulent blogs--"I am sometimes surprised, me being quite silly, that Singaporean enjoy such blogs (my explanation is because there are no mainstream tabloids)." I have to say the explanation has the ring of truth to it.
- lzydata of Singapore Ink also has quite a bit to say but the opening captured my sentiments exactly: "You know, some things are just beyond reason and beyond parody."
On a different note, I have followed with some interest the rather uneven coverage of blogs by ST, ranging from the objective and at least not hostile, to just plain bad. From the archives of this blog:
- "The Mainstream Media does not get blogs" (Apr 24); title self explanatory.
- "Factchecking ST" (Apr 29); about a detail in ST's coverage of the CZ affair.
- "Mainstream media, blogs and other matters" (May 13); on the accusation of bull----.
- "Reading the ST (May 15)"; where I coined the term "xiaxue doctrine", referring to ST's misquoting of Mr. Brown and Mr. Miyagi.
- "ST on the blogosphere (May 24)"; on three ST articles about blogs that are neither here nor there.
- "ST gets serious about blogs", Part 2, Part 3 (May 27-28); probably the most objective coverage of the blogs ever attained by ST to date, and it is revealing that they were penned by comparatively younger journalists (my age and younger).
- "ST on Bloggers.sg 2005" (July 17); on the less than stellar coverage of the convention.
- "Sumiko Tan on cyberspace's "bile and vile"" (Aug 1); on hindsight, a tamer and more classy precursor to Skadian's piece.
add: - lzydata commented that Andy Ho's "Blogging’s catching on, but beware of the pitfalls" (Sep 19) should count as "plain bad" (Tym disagrees: she thinks that Andy Ho's writing in general should count as "plain bad"). Strangely enough, I don't recall that piece--probably missed it (or only took a quick glance) because I was busy at that time. But it was the piece that Jonathan Au was responding to. I have no particular reason to disagree with either lzydata or Tym.
How will this saga continue?
add: Tym has more on the ST headlines: "Since the results of the interschool blogging competition were announced to polite applause on September 9, the headlines have taken a far more tumultuous turn." Indeed. There's a lot more, but you should read it for yourself.
latest: Elia Diodati has a detailed--and very cool--response in an "open letter to Skadian":
cool: 《海峽時報》這場風波竟然受到某台灣博客關注，而本blog也因此有了個中文譯名﹕『新加坡視角』。有意思。(也學到blog在台灣叫『部落格』而blogosphere譯為『部落格圈』。)
update: (Sep 29 2130 -0400)
More reactions from Kevin Lim (something about a chickenpox outbreak) and Wowbagger (something about giant sotongs). Elsewhere, Simon and Global Voices Online take notice.
As far as I'm concerned, blogs are possibly the worst things about the Internet. Sure, pornography and other stuff rightly furrow the brows of parents, but the things some bloggers say go far beyond the pale.Blogs are worse than porn. I don't even know where to begin... Anyway, Many of the concerns raised were mentioned earlier by Sumiko Tan; but without her restraint, or class. Since I'm turning in now, I will have to get back to this tomorrow. In the meantime, see reactions from Jeff Yen and Mr. Wang.
reactions coming in fast:
I wake up in the morning to see that--as expected--reactions to the ST piece are mushrooming everywhere in the local blogosphere. There is also a tomorrow.sg entry. Some of the more colorful ones:
- Xenoboy steps out of his post-structuralist mantle to write an Op-Ed: "PAP? No, ST Bugs Me More--with morally righteous and pro-establishment articles on the ST, how do we keep kids from believing everything they read?". As one of the commenters said: "Awesome!"
- Molly Meek died a second time: "If you condition them to believe everything in their National Education classes, in the ST, in Channel NewsAsia, etc, then they will inevitably tend to believe everything an inflammatory, venomous, seditious, subversive blogger has to say since you have effaced their critical abilities. On the other hand, if you want them to critically receive blogs, then you have to be prepared to let them receive their National Education classes, the ST, the CAN etc with trucks and trucks of salt. Find a way out of this catch-22 and you will create your utopia!"
- Singapore Classics sacrificed his "nice warm Grande Mocha" over lunch to respond: "Basically he is declaring war. Throwing one big splat of red paintball on all bloggers. Bad choice." He has quite a bit to say taking Skadian's piece apart, but this one part jumped out. He was talking about the existence of less than objective and in fact openly virulent blogs--"I am sometimes surprised, me being quite silly, that Singaporean enjoy such blogs (my explanation is because there are no mainstream tabloids)." I have to say the explanation has the ring of truth to it.
- lzydata of Singapore Ink also has quite a bit to say but the opening captured my sentiments exactly: "You know, some things are just beyond reason and beyond parody."
On a different note, I have followed with some interest the rather uneven coverage of blogs by ST, ranging from the objective and at least not hostile, to just plain bad. From the archives of this blog:
- "The Mainstream Media does not get blogs" (Apr 24); title self explanatory.
- "Factchecking ST" (Apr 29); about a detail in ST's coverage of the CZ affair.
- "Mainstream media, blogs and other matters" (May 13); on the accusation of bull----.
- "Reading the ST (May 15)"; where I coined the term "xiaxue doctrine", referring to ST's misquoting of Mr. Brown and Mr. Miyagi.
- "ST on the blogosphere (May 24)"; on three ST articles about blogs that are neither here nor there.
- "ST gets serious about blogs", Part 2, Part 3 (May 27-28); probably the most objective coverage of the blogs ever attained by ST to date, and it is revealing that they were penned by comparatively younger journalists (my age and younger).
- "ST on Bloggers.sg 2005" (July 17); on the less than stellar coverage of the convention.
- "Sumiko Tan on cyberspace's "bile and vile"" (Aug 1); on hindsight, a tamer and more classy precursor to Skadian's piece.
add: - lzydata commented that Andy Ho's "Blogging’s catching on, but beware of the pitfalls" (Sep 19) should count as "plain bad" (Tym disagrees: she thinks that Andy Ho's writing in general should count as "plain bad"). Strangely enough, I don't recall that piece--probably missed it (or only took a quick glance) because I was busy at that time. But it was the piece that Jonathan Au was responding to. I have no particular reason to disagree with either lzydata or Tym.
How will this saga continue?
add: Tym has more on the ST headlines: "Since the results of the interschool blogging competition were announced to polite applause on September 9, the headlines have taken a far more tumultuous turn." Indeed. There's a lot more, but you should read it for yourself.
latest: Elia Diodati has a detailed--and very cool--response in an "open letter to Skadian":
Pointing an accusing finger can be easy to do, but one seldom remembers that there are three finger pointing back at oneself. Hopefully your exhortation to "better start putting the brain before the mouse" can also be applied to journalists and bloggers alike.I'll say amen to that.
cool: 《海峽時報》這場風波竟然受到某台灣博客關注，而本blog也因此有了個中文譯名﹕『新加坡視角』。有意思。(也學到blog在台灣叫『部落格』而blogosphere譯為『部落格圈』。)
update: (Sep 29 2130 -0400)
More reactions from Kevin Lim (something about a chickenpox outbreak) and Wowbagger (something about giant sotongs). Elsewhere, Simon and Global Voices Online take notice.
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