Malu Fernandez is My Tita

Yep, that’s for real, I am the nephew of a very lovely person named Malu Fernandez. My aunt’s reputation though, is nowhere near the vilified persona much less the body mass (BMI) of the much hated, ex-People Asia writer. My aunt instead is an angel busy with making the world a much better place.

My aunt… an angel busy with making the world a much better place.

I just read an article on joanjoyce‘s blog and wanting to make a comment, I immediately jumped right in. But when I noticed that I was already typing away nearly three paragraphs worth of comments, I instead decided to make this into a full-pledged post.

Malu Fernandez (the writer, not my aunt) has come up with yet another article which we think would cause another stir within the Pinoy blogosphere. I’m surprised she now (don’t really care about which paper) she still writes for Manila Standard Today and I hope she enjoys working there. So here’s my reaction to her “slacking off” commentary.

I took up journalism in college but ended up as a designer. Back then I felt that I didn’t need to “study” journalism as I grew up knowing that journalists are made and not taught. Being born and raised in a family full of journalists, I was never taught or made to write with such prejudice or bias.

Malu Fernandez may be correct with some of the facts particularly about Pinoy bloggers “lynch blogging” her for what she has written before. But to single out Filipinos as backstabbing indios with blogs, well that is a different case.

“The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech.”

True. A journalist abides by a certain etiquette, a non-written code of conduct when writing. A “pro” doesn’t speak out her mind without showing a plethora of facts. Journalists do not write articles that demean other people’s professions or livelihoods. They write about the truth and not about their egos.

On the other hand, us bloggers have a more liberal environment which I mostly enjoy. Here we can write on anything we want with no editors looking after your our writing skills and our biased ego. However “pro-blogging” demands that we evolve into something better either by writing good responsible content, fostering friendships, collaborating or networking with other bloggers.

We bloggers are masters of our own domain, literally.

The article seems incomplete and her writing clearly shows her bias and that she was very much affected by the whole OFW fiasco last year. For me She is a feature writer and not a news person or journalist.

“If you have something to say, don’t hide behind a false name. It’s just plain cowardice of you to do so.”

Journalists use pen names or pseudonyms to hide their identities. I know people who write for several major newspapers using different pen names for each publication. Even Jose Rizal and the rest of the gang used pen names to hide their identities from the Spaniards.

A blogger’s anonymity is purely cosmetic and is very limited. In most cases, trying a reverse IP lookup or a domain whois search will reveal who that anonymous blogger is along with an address and phone number.

“If blogging is such a slacker job
then maybe that makes me bad at slacking off.” — Archon Digital