Fast Forward 15 May 2007

I wasn't planning to watch this RTM2 talkshow last night, but somehow while switching aimlessly through the channels, Bunn Nagara of The Star was speaking and I decided to while my time away watching it. The other speaker last night was Pak Non of The Sun. Bernama's Azman Ujang joined in through the telephone. Overall, I find the speakers present their views on the impact and influence of blogs/bloggers vis-a-vis the mainstream media quite well.

Bunn seems to imply that bloggers more often than not tend to have their facts wrong (not deliberately) because they do not have the support of others like in a press organization to verify what they've collected. I agree with him to a certain extent, but not when the usual blogger is one who aggregates information from various knwon sources, including mainstream media, and presents an analysis or opinion based on that collection. Unless the known sources have their facts wrong, blaming the blogger for the wrong facts is just looking for a convenient scapegoat. Anyway, you could read a report of the show in Jeff Ooi's blog.

What is perplexing though is that Ahirudin Attan of Rocky's Bru is supposed to be one of the speakers in the talk show. However, he was supposedly informed that it was postponed, but turned out the show went ahead without him. Having him there would have made the show much better as he as an ex-journalist and a current active blogger would have been able to present views from the other side, so to speak. Perhaps pressure from the top has canned his presence?

Anyway, at the close of the talk show, 59% of viewers were of the opinion that the press here is not free enough. The government really have to think about freeing up the mainstream media to allow them to regain credibility rather than engaging in a futile attempt to vilify bloggers.