Is mainstream media now focusing on how some Big Bad Bloggers might be giving blogging a bad name? Or perhaps it’s just a slow news day. But have you stopped to really think about who is giving blogging a bad name?
Some of you may have read it in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, while others may have gone online and read Please Don’t GIve Blogging a Bad Name by Margaux Salcedo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
It makes one wonder who is The PR Firm that allegedly invites bloggers to restaurants to eat and later write rave or scathing reviews, depending on how they want to make money off the resto owners.
I mean, with an obsequious title such as “Please Don’t Give Blogging a Bad Name”, it gives the impression that some bloggers can actually make or break a restaurant.
The article of Margaux Salcedo somehow gives power to Big Bad Bloggers.
The story shows how some businesses reportedly get scared of Big Bad Bloggers.
Margaux Salcedo’s article ends with:
There’s nothing wrong with expressing one’s opinion. Just make sure it is indeed your own. There is also nothing wrong with trying to get a free meal. Just please don’t make the rest of us writers and bloggers pay for it. Certainly neither writers nor restaurateurs have the right to tell the Big Bad Blogger or The Firm to stop doing business. This is just a little request to please not give blogging a bad name. We’re watching you.
Here are some observations and questions:
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1. Do you really own your own opinion? Think about it. I mean, really.
2. Can Big Good Bloggers make Big Bad Bloggers or The-PR-Firms pay for it? It works both ways.
3. We’re watching you — this gives the impression that the writer knows the identity of either the BBB or The PR Firm. And the “little” request makes one wonder if the writer is probably afraid of the BBB or The PR Firm, or both.
We’ve read various exposes in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in the past. News of onerous deals, scams, wrongdoings of politicians, extortion done by some officials or even media people, and other stories of injustice.
Now we read of just a little request to please not give blogging a bad name.
How polite. How proper.
How wimpy.
Makes me wonder if the BBB or The PR Firm is more powerful than politicians or high officials of previous administrations “featured” in “balanced news and fearless views.”
Such scary BBBs. Such frightening and untouchable PR firms.
As a result, we now see a blind-item which makes some people look at food bloggers and wonder whether this or that blogger is the “Big Bad Blogger.”
We now have businesses that look at bloggers with suspicion. Some legit food bloggers may even think twice before whipping out their DSLRs in a restaurant, now that food blogging horror stories make their way around restaurateur circles.
With just a simple titillating guessing game of an article both online and in print, the credibility of some (if not all) food bloggers have been put in question.
Now tell me, Margaux: Who is giving blogging a bad name?
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