for one who seemed to be too smart to get caught in the golf war, dean jorge bocobo seems too kind naman now to the mom blogger who has a problem with credibility, as she herself admitted on anc’s media in focus.

She really scored a bullseye for the Bloggers and outshined veteran journalists Carlos Conde (International Herald Tribune) and Danilo Arao (Bulatlat) when she pointed out that it is the very active comment threads that come with real blogs, as well as the commentaries of other bloggers, that provide check and balance on what bloggers report or opine. Indeed, as a blogger myself, I am grateful when my Comment Thread participants point out blatant errors in my posts. I gladly acknowledge them.

and what’s this about “very active comment threads that come with real blogs”?   so blogs that don’t have very active comment threads are not “real” blogs?   so this, mine, is not a “real” blog?   oh pleasssse!   comments are only that, comments.   as long as there is no erratum or formal acknowledgement of error by the blogger, where is the check and balance?    where is the check and balance when a blogger feels free to blog one thing now and the complete opposite tomorrow without a by-your-leave, or so it is alleged.

to his credit, carlos conde is the only blogger i’ve read who had the grace to follow up his anti-pangandaman post with serious self-examination and a rueful apology for allowing himself to be swept up by bambee’s blog.

As a journalist, I should have known better.

In itself, the brawl at the Valley Golf was a fascinating story, with an even fascinating backstory from each side: a family of powerful politicians from a region known for their goons and guns versus a family of golfers trying to make it big in golf.

I felt strongly about what had happened (at least according to Bambee) but instead of investigating the incident and get to the truth of it, as any journalist ought to do and as I have done in other stories in the past, I put on my other hat and merely blogged about it.

Did I attempt to get the side of the Pangandamans? I did not. Did I investigate whether what Bambee dela Paz wrote was accurate or truthful? I did not. My outrage had been vented, so why bother? It was so goddamn easy.

however i disagree that it was a mistake to blog about it just because all the facts were not in.   one could have blogged about it without taking bambee’s side right off.   one could have first wondered aloud about the truth of the story, the possibility of bias, and even given the pangandamans the benefit of the doubt, why not.

as for all the blogging going on these days about blogging and why we blog, ang masasabi ko lang ay:  i love blogging because it’s a liberating kind of writing. i’d been blogging barely a month back in 2007 when i wrote this:

i’ve written for all kinds of media – print, television, stage, [docu] film – and i find that the happiest kind of writing, i mean, the kind of writing i like best is this, writing for cyberspace, to be read by many or just family and friends, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that i’m free to say anything about anything, and it’s posted out there for cybereternity, what a great way of passing on mind stuff to my kids, and i can write it in any style and length i please, puwedeng no caps, use the same word twice, thrice in the same sentence, the same paragraph, and take as long as i like before bothering with a period, even smile or frown, scream or swear, in english or tagalog, taglish or gayspeak, and no censor, editor, director or producer to mess it up.   sarap!