Tag Fiesta

This entry is based on the ongoing blogger project, The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007, of Janette Toral. Influential is a ticklish thing to define, so let’s just say influential ranges from the personal (hey, I like reading such-and-such a blog) to the tangible in terms of link love… Anyway.The blogs speak for themselves. I’m not 100% sure they’re all post-August 2006 blogs, though.

1. Ricky Carandang Reporting
2. The Patsada Karajaw Nation
3. Tingog.com: The Voice of the Filipino
4. CAFFiend
5. Dispatches by Jesus Llanto
6. smoke
7. The Bayanihan Blog Network
8. Placeholder
9. The Magnificent Atty. Perez
10. Puckering Time

And on to being tagged for various memes.

Macaula.com and Feels Great to be Pinoy: well,

1. In San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, a hacendero’s son once took me around a property they were developing. It was a small residential village. He pointed to the various homes under construction: “here, is a seaman’s home, over there, a home built by a nurse in Texas, there, a caregiver from London’s home, and that one is the home of a carpenter in Saudi.” Each of these people, upon further investigation, had parents who were sakadas; in one lifetime, they’d made the leap from the peasantry to the middle class. This is remarkable and will eventually have long-term, positive, consequences.

2. The students I’ve met in so many places around the country, and how they teach me, every time, to look at problems and solutions with fresh eyes. While I worry that much is being lost by way of traditions and a shared culture, because of the breakdown in our institutions, I admire the sense of freedom, the lack of being limited by these things, that these students show. Literally, nothing will be impossible for them.

3. The way it’s still possible, sooner or later, to engage in productive discussions even with those whose views I strongly disagree with.

Two from baratillo @ cubao:

Six weird things about me meme.

1. I like peas microwaved with butter.
2. I am convinced that even if only a few drops of rain fall on my head, I’ll end up sick.
3. I tend to consume cigarettes very quickly.
4. I have a horror of drafts.
5. For some reason, I used to be unable to work without music; now, music gets in the way of thinking when I work.
6. When I am a passenger in a car, I end up subconsciously stamping my feet on the floor, miming braking as if I’m the one driving.

Tagging: anyone.

and that postcard meme, Only in the Philippines!

922870501 394553E2Fa

Tagging: anyone.

Technorati Tags:

Avatar
Manuel L. Quezon III.

240 thoughts on “Tag Fiesta

  1. Manolo, thanks for including me on the list! BTW, i was thinking of tagging you (c/o Sparks) but i see that you already have your share.

  2. Yet another beauty contest, Manolo? (You know my sentiments.) Congratulations to the clever pageant organizers.

  3. did you guys hear what INDAY VARONA ESPINA told Cheche Lazaro on Media in Focus: “Some blogs may be brilliant, but they are still SELF-INDULGENT exercises.”

    Hehe! so which blogger are we mlq3, brilliant and/or self-indulgent.

    As for Vergel O. Santos he insists that bloggers are NOT journalists.

    i should say not! been there and done that working for some secret mogul and acting journalistic, as long as you avoid the sacred cows.

    EVOLVE or PERISH!

  4. 1. About the Sakadas and Hacendado. I don’t know why the haciendero was so proud showing off the homes of former sakadas. Did he think he had anything to do with those people’s successes. They were all OFWs. Get it? O… F… Dubyas… It’s not as if the sons of former sakadas became hacienda CEOs. Funny way of being proud.

    2. I bet they all wanted to work abroad.

    3. It’s possible when you’ve finally learned to patronize your “lessers” like a true-blooded mestizo. (Not talking about MLQ3 in particular).

  5. DJB

    Blogging has more in common with lifestyle or the backend of newspapers than the front end. As a tech blogger, we get more traffic on rumors than on hard facts. Rumor mongering is the life blood of blogging.

  6. Sir, thank you so much. Words cannot express – then why am I saying this? haha.

    Anyway, we both share 3, 5, and most especially 6. i even glance at side mirrors when the car is about to swerve or turn.

  7. Wow, thank you for the tag link, but honestly, I feel sorry for whoever has been influenced by my blogs, if there are any. Hehehe. My entries are all attacks on common sense and logic.

  8. as a “free market of ideas”, i think the Blog is far superior than the mainstream media, i.e., print, radio & tv.

    whereas a “free wheeling” debate” (to borrow a phrase from watchful eye in a previous tread), constrained only by the laws on libel and national security, is actually a natural component of blogging, such is not possible in the traditional media where space and time limitations, editorial policies, biases, private agenda of its owners and publishers, greed, and delusions of power and importance, make it a not-so-effective vehicle for free speech and expression vis a vis the common man.

    the beauty of blogging is that ideas, opinions, points of view, prejudices, preferences and versions of truth, can be expressed by anyone (subject to minimum restraints mentioned), but can be challenged, refuted and exposed for any fallacy instantaneously by others. the reader is thus given all four dimensions of an issue which enable him to reach his own verdict.

    in the abs-cbn show “media focus”, mentioned above by djb, the male guest (who, i remember, advocates absolute freedom of the press in previous interviews) denies bloggers the status of “journalists”, perhaps because bloggers are not paid by big business. the other guest describes bloggers as “self-indulgent” whatever she means by that. at any rate bloggers, as a general rule, have a need to be careful and responsible for their comments because they know that, as sure as night follows day, their statements will be subjected to critical scrutiny by their readers. in contrast, mainstream media commentators are almost totally impervious to criticism because, most of the time, contrary views don’t see the light of day in their outlet, purportedly due to editorial constraints.

  9. “the beauty of blogging is that ideas, opinions, points of view, prejudices, preferences and versions of truth, can be expressed by anyone (subject to minimum restraints mentioned), but can be challenged, refuted and exposed for any fallacy instantaneously by others. the reader is thus given all four dimensions of an issue which enable him to reach his own verdict.”

    you think so Bencard? maybe you’re talking of Manolo’s blog but try visiting ellen tordecillas’, give your opinions, prejudices and versions of truth then see what happens. or maybe you can just ask DJB about his personal expererience there. 🙂

    I tend to agree more with Inday Varona’s take and of that guy Vergel santos.

  10. grd,

    lots of people go to ellen tordesillas blog for “scream therapy”. IMO there is nothing wrong with that. It’s a blog after all and what makes it different is she couldn’t do that on ABSCBN News or the Malaya website coz they just don’t quite get it yet do they. But they’ll get there. They always end up following what happens in the US for some reason. There of course, the industry saw the handwriting on the newsprint just in the last few years, but if you look, newspapers are becoming more like giant blog sites than the other way around.

    Hard to believe right now that newspapers as they are are on the way out. But when was the last time you actually saw telephone poles being put up?

    I have a friend in that industry and he says, they just woke up one morning and their business had simply vanished because of the celphone phenomenon.

    Blogging spells not the literal end of mainstream journalism. Not at all. Someone’s gotta print the supermarket ads and cellphone promos. But bloggerdom does represent the most potent challenge to journalism’s opinionating and editorializing. The main stream media is fast losing the “Voice of Omniscience and Authority” that they used to have.

    Things are changing right under their feet. They don’t even see it–judging by the charmingly defensive remarks of the two on Cheche’s show.

    What I found mildly disgusting though was the pair’s hypocritical claims for the journalistic profession as if it isn’t the cesspool of corruption and compromise many know it to be.

    Frankly the Media, pound for pound, is just as corrupt as government, with whom they live in symbiosis. I think they are in fact a part of governance, having insinuated themselves into every interstice of social and political life, and exploit every single niche and habitat in the service of politicians, companies and all sorts of personal and organized interests.

    When you are working for a big newspaper, you’re working for some big corporate interest, even if you don’t know it. Usually, this is not corporation like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal are corporations and institutions. Most of the local outfits are really family owned businesses, or closely held private enterprises.

    I am not approving of the murders of journalists–these are crimes to be prosecuted. But some of those who were killed were not exactly lily white, they were in in “biznez” and often in this country things turn so sour it can get you killed. But Vergel O Santos and Inday Varona were trying very hard to make it seem that these deaths of journalists are “political killings”. They are trying to take a page out of karapatan’s list-making.

  11. then those types of blogger have no place in the blogsphere and will not last long. who is interested in their soliloquies or monologues? that’s why a lot of them are “nilalangaw”, right?

    i think most blogs are sincere in their invitation to “post a comment”, just like mlq3’s.

  12. Bencard, ur comment (Jul 29, 2007 at12:18 am) is one of the most sensible you made here. Actually, the idea of “freewheeling debate” has been derived from this post –

    Blogging may be defined as an ancient liberty in a time warp.

    But first, it may be well to know that there are two ancient liberties that are equated with democracy: 1) the liberty to rule and be ruled in turn, and 2) the liberty to live as one chooses. The first is also the liberty of an individual to share with others the right to run the government (political equality) and the second is the liberty to be free from the interference by such government and others (negative liberty or, sometimes, the “freedom from interference”).

    In Athens during Aristotle’s times, there was no distinction between public and private sphere or bewteen state and society where each citizen found ultimate fulfillment in public debate and politics. Direct and active participation in self-government (both legislative and judicial) was the end goal of citizenship.

    Athenian democracy, now known as direct democracy, was where most Athenians served as a public official at least once during their life time; hence, to conceive of a form of representative government as practiced today was problematic for them. However, there was one essential condition for direct democracy to function well: the citizens must have enough free time to engage in public talk and participate in public administration. The convenience of slave economy (and the exclusion of women) freed up time for ancient citizens to carry those duties.

    In the absence of a constitutional framework, demagoguery in Athens unfortunately allowed the occurrence of democratic tyranny (tyranny of the majority) which, for one, endangered negative liberty (the liberty to live as one chooses). Plato, the quintessential elitist, thought that strict political equality – accorded to those who were neither experienced nor knowledgeable about public affairs – sidelined the wise. The philosopher also believed that both notions of liberty (political equality and negative liberty) were inconsistent with the maintenance of order and stability. Plato’s worries were apparently resolved by the latter-day constitutional and representative democracy.

    Moving fast-forward, blogging may essentially be classified into public and private electronic discourses (also exercised now by hybrid-citizens with increasing frequency). The public discourse is more closely related to political equality exercised in the realm of deliberative democracy and the private talk to negative liberty plied in the marketplace of ideas.

    In a deliberative democracy, participants dialogue, reason out and then, transcending the initial conflict, DECIDE or VOTE to attain the common good; it is a counterweight to the old-fashioned policymaking. In the marketplace of ideas, participants, skirting the intervention of traditional media, disseminate ideas and information and directly compete for audience (readers, customers, critics, peers, leaders or policymakers) who BUY or TUNE OUT; it is a counterweight to the conventional media.

    When blogging takes the form of free expression so exercised in the realm of deliberative democracy, it occupies the highest rung in the hierarchy of democratic and constitutional values involving as it does the sharing of sovereign authority. This so-called public liberty ordinarily trumps negative liberty for the simple reason that the individual is less than the community. – by Abe N. Margallo

  13. Bencard,

    grd here may have misled you! Ellen’s blog is in no way “nilalangaw”.

    Hardly the truth.

    Ellen’s blog is anti-Gloria through and through and those who are pro-Gloria or who believe that posters there (who include yours truly) are left-wing, NPA sympathizers or commies had better change tune before they start spewing pro-Gloria rhetorics or branding folks who comment there as NPA sympathizers, islamofanatics, etc.

    Ellen has long laid down the rules of engagement in her blog. Those who cannot respect her rules are free not to join and not to post comment. Nothing wrong with that.

    Needless to say, Ellen’s right to publish her thoughts, comments and whatever opinion in her blog, on which posters comment, who, btw, are far from being “idiots” as some people would like to think, is covered by the Bill of Rights.

    I hope this clears up matter. And to grd, I suggest you be more judicious with your remarks about a fellow blogger of Ellen’s stature!

  14. Been blogging and commenting for over a year now (actually I developed a tendinitis on my right thumb as the result) and experienced all kind of Bloggers.

    Some would blog to tell the world of their biases and prejudice and that is not a problem as long as they are within the limitations of the expression of thoughts. Some would invite some outside knowledge to re-enforce his or her own ( free ) and some would even do it for scamming and frauds, as I already experienced and been warned by some friends who had been victimized…

    But altogether it is good exercise of our Freedom of Expression and also to impart the realities in our parts of the world through our own experiences and observations and hoping that we also learn from others and to keep an open mind as we, no matter how smart we think we are, we can always learn from others’ ideas and thoughts. Great Nations were not built by one smart individual, but collectively by efforts of all well-meaning subjects…

  15. hey MLQ3,

    i know i owe you quite a lot for tagging me all the time and grab some of what i write in my blog. lately, i have seen some of your visitors becoming a reqular on my blog – so yeah, that pretty much says how influential your blog is (hmmm and why is it not on the list? should we call a recount?!)

    so, all i can say is – merci beaucoup monsieur! hope to meet you in person when i go home to visit my turd world kawntri!

  16. I only visited ellen blogs once, and after scanning some comments and exchanges. I never bother to go through with it. And never visited that blog again. Its not just for me.

    I actually discovered blogging by accident last year. I dont even know there is such a thing as blogging already. And I dont know exactly what it means. I remember I just click something in Inquirer that lead me to to PCIJ during the garci scandal. I joined the discussion pronto. And I was so shocked that I was easilly branded as malacanang lackey, paid hacks…etc etc. I did engaged in such a very lengthy debate. I even went to on to publish my cellphone and challenges everyone who are in NYC or visiting nYC that I am willing to met them show them what I am doing to prove that i have no connection to malacang at all….( Remember this Vic?) Anyway I just got tired of the heated excanges in PCIJ and I feel its not really worth my time deabting with those in that blog anymore. So I ask Mita of any other blog site. And that leads me to Manolos. I stayed for good.

    I was just wondering what happend to PCIJ blog. It like its no longer that popular anymore. I check the site once last Mrch and it was already desserted. I check it again while writing this and almost all the articles have zero comments. What happened?

    I wonder where are my adversaries in that site now. Where is jrlad now? (sya yung naghari hariang maton doon dati) . And that guy 3zz-fe I really wish we can exhange ideas again. And Im sure it woudl be better this.

    Nalulungkot din ako kahit papano sa nangyari sa PCIJ….

  17. Manolo,

    Marming salamat din sayo for accomodating people like me who always disagree with you. Mag iisang taon na rin pala ako dito sa blog mo . I enjoyed it so much.

    BTW is why am planning to put up my own blog too. But I will not be doing politics and punditry though. It will be dealing mostly on Materials science and in its applications to different fields. And on my passion on designs and architecture. I will try very hard to inject my provenance there. But i still dont know how. the main purpose is actually to reach out to my clients and business associates and colleagues.

  18. bencard, i agree with you absolutely concerning your views on the advantages of blogging.

    rego, we may often disagree but there are times we also agree, or, we help each other sharpen our thinking. so at the very least we’re always making improvements.

    i hope you pursue your blogging! it would be neat to learn about materials science and it might inspire students to take it up, and make it their field of interest.

  19. In regards to Ellen’s Blog, it is just an anti Gloria blog and nothing more. Any opinion that implies anything else, will get you branded as a paid hacker. The conspiracy theories do get amusing and I think the reason why Ellen’s blog is so popular is because of the characters on that site. I find myself really hating these characters but at the same time keep coming back for more. Ystakei for example is a regular on that blog. She will always claim to be better than everybody else, she’s half japanese, half british, half this and half that, a better breed according to her. Everytime she comments it would always be about her, her japanese citizenship, Japan, her wealth, connections, education, morals, religion, and by the way, she say’s there really was no sexual slavery in WW2 because our grandmothers except for hers really prostituted themselves during the time. I can go on and on. I really hate her guts and can picture her as a fat, ugly, oldmaid. I do have to admit that she’s the reason why I lurk on that site. I just love to hate her. This is probably the reason why Ellen has a successful blog.

  20. rego,
    yeah i remember it quite so well. that was where i started commenting too after being led during the Garci scandal and also where my loyalties and allegiance were questioned and i believe i stood my ground and now it is part of my day to browse all over the sites. still visit pcij and the postings are still very interesting and imformative. even have fun exchanging views with the sassy lawyer…

  21. Hahaha. You got it PTT. We share the same feelings specially with that “fat, ugly, oldmaid. 🙂

    DJB, that’s what I thought about that blog too. It’s really a “scream therapy” for others. What with those labeling, cursing and conspiracy theories. I find it a good propaganda machine too against GMA and her cohorts with those unwitting regulars always in unison with what the author writes. A dissenter usually got banned and opposing opinions getting deleted.

    MBW, I’m not misleading Bencard here into thinking that the blog of ellen is “nilalangaw” as what you readily concluded (a common trait you share with your fellow ellenville regulars and as what PTT just posted above). Again, reflect on what I have quoted on Bencard’s previous comment. I meant it’s not what he always thinks about blogging. It has it’s ugliness too. Judicious? Huh, look who’s talking. At least, you’re discreet here.

  22. The sooner they stop being solidly pro-GMA and solidly anti-GMA the better the disucssion gets.

    What I am happy about blogging is that there are now a lot of teachers getting into it. And what’s amusing is that some readily accept that they learn this through their students and they learn some things from their students.

  23. “the beauty of blogging is that ideas, opinions, points of view, prejudices, preferences and versions of truth, can be expressed by anyone (subject to minimum restraints mentioned), but can be challenged, refuted and exposed for any fallacy instantaneously by others. the reader is thus given all four dimensions of an issue which enable him to reach his own verdict.”

    you think so Bencard? maybe you’re talking of Manolo’s blog but try visiting ellen tordecillas’, give your opinions, prejudices and versions of truth then see what happens. or maybe you can just ask DJB about his personal expererience there.

    also ask him about his experiences with sassy’s site.

  24. DJB, that’s what I thought about that blog too. It’s really a “scream therapy” for others. What with those labeling, cursing and conspiracy theories. I find it a good propaganda machine too against GMA and her cohorts with those unwitting regulars always in unison with what the author writes. A dissenter usually got banned and opposing opinions getting deleted.

    well, she usually bans trolls and flamers. the pro-arroyo idiots usually make trouble there. people like “anthony scalia” and “proudtobepinoy.” good riddance to them.

    (re djb, he usually disagrees with the contents of ellen’s blog, but i don’t think he’s banned there. djb now calls himself godsavedtheconstitution or something over there tho)

    and re banning, karapatan nya yan. there’s nothing wrong with it. sassy does it from time to time.

    many big name bloggers moderate their comments too. kung hindi lumabas ang comment mo, pasensiya ka na lang.

  25. it really doesn’t matter john, it could be ellen’s or sassy lawyer’s blog. what i’m trying to disprove to Bencard is his notion that all blogs are the same. as what Bokyo said, “The sooner they stop being solidly pro-GMA and solidly anti-GMA the better the disucssion gets.”

  26. hi manolo, thank you for nominating my small blog from a remote corner in this country.

    I have been missing your tag for quite sometime and I am just happy that you consider as one of the “influential” or “emerging” blogs today.

    Thank you very much. But for me your blog is the most influential because without your tags people will not be visiting my blog that much.

    More power! Your my number 1!!!

  27. “the pro-arroyo idiots usually make trouble there…”

    and what about the anti-arroyo idiots? they cannot identify who’s pro-gloria and who are the moderates? if you’re not anti-gloria then you’re a paid hack?

  28. and what about the anti-arroyo idiots? they cannot identify who’s pro-gloria and who are the moderates? if you’re not anti-gloria then you’re a paid hack?

    my advice to the trouble makers is to go to sassy’s site na lang or a site that is “more hospitable” to your views. wag na kayong manggulo.

    o gumawa na lang kayo ng blog nyo.

    as for the moderates, guys like djb will not be banned in ellen’s site, unlike his experience with another big name blogger (knowhatimsayin?) 😉

  29. I really hate her guts and can picture her as a fat, ugly, oldmaid. I do have to admit that she’s the reason why I lurk on that site. I just love to hate her. This is probably the reason why Ellen has a successful blog.

    life is too short to be going to sites whose members and views you HATE, PTT.

    katulad ko, i don’t don’t waste my time going to sites whose bloggers i don’t respect or find credible anymore. i mean, who wants to be called a “paid hacker” hindi ba?

    unless of course, may binabalak ka…

  30. Becard: “in the abs-cbn show “media focus”, mentioned above by djb, the male guest (who, i remember, advocates absolute freedom of the press in previous interviews) denies bloggers the status of “journalists”, perhaps because bloggers are not paid by big business. the other guest describes bloggers as “self-indulgent” whatever she means by that.”

    To solve the problem of self-indulgence we only need to engage in the practice of peer review. On the Web, peer review is well-nigh impossible, of course, but it does exist. Unprofessional bloggers are ignored. Check their technorati ranking and even after a couple years of blogging, barely anyone is linking to them. Professional bloggers or bloggers worth people’s time get linked very often. Inday Espina probably has little knowledge of the culture of permalinks and link backs. For example quezon.ph has a technorati ranking of just under 12k and an authority of 342, while Bryanboy.com “Le Superstar Fabuleux has a ranking of 3.5k and authority of 752. In my book, Bryanboy is less self-indulgent than Quezon.ph

  31. As for Athenian democracy, all we hear are preserved speeches. There’s no way of telling whether the people are truly happy and free. The poets, philosophers public officials and successful merchants are free to say what they want but I heard in Ancient Athens if you have brown skin, come from a poor family and have no connections but are brave enough to speak your mind, you are quickly labeled a commie and your balls get cut off.

  32. John Marzan

    Like I said, the reason why I keep coming back to lurk on that site is because I love to hate the characters in that blog. Another way to put it is, it’s like watching a soap opera and being hooked on it because of the personality of an evil character. I don’t “Hate” their political views and opinions. If I was to smash a baseball bat on ystakei face for example, it’s not because she’s anti-gloria or anything. I could not care less. It would be just because her character wether real or not, portrays a self absorbed old hag who thinks she can impress everybody and look at herself to be better than anybody else. Because of her irritable character, I actually Love reading her comments. As far as paid hacks, I don’t think hackers will waste their time putting in comments on a blog instead of actually working on shutting a website down.

  33. Folks,

    We always learn the most from those who disagree with us. That is why it is the disagreements and differing point of views one encounters on blogs that is truly refreshing and new.

    Contrast that with Star, Bulletin, or PDI. You sort of know what to expect from the pundits on each newspaper. Though they pride themselves in independence of thought and the freedom to choose what topics to write about, they only start out being different or unique from each other. After a while they learn what the forbidden subjects are, and a kind of pecking order thingy imposes a sort of discipline, especially on the younger writers about what is correct. The latter after a while begin to take on the characteristics of the herd, or they move on.

    A mainstream newspaper is primarily an economic enterprise for profit. It cannot be otherwise because the Gutenberg technology they are using requires such expense and capital. And I have estimated that the daily print run of PDI+Stat+Bulletin is the equivalent of a small forest of 500 trees. Daily! No wonder they are such great pro-environementalists and stroke the likes of Lory Tan and Greenpeace with lots and lots of free space. Tee Hee!

    Bloggers—we are all beneficiaries of the geniuses of Silicon Valley and Redmond and CERN. I still don’t pay a single cent for Philippine Commentary, yet there are 2,000 posts if you count the old site!

    That is why I don’t have to kowtow to or be awed by anyone. And vice versa.

    Here it is a pure, democratic struggle among ideas.

    the sites na nilalangaw are the ones where the ideas are weak, stale, or just not popular. Or they are just recycling stuff they read that day. But even many highly popular sites are really just trash. Like most porno–said to 75% of the internet!

    It is when you have ideas that GO VIRAL, when they become MEMES, that things get interesting. When does an idea become a meme? When does a BLOG become a meme?

    Answer: after it has won over at least one brain.

    BTW, I shall divulge a secret: on my blog I only write for ONE PERSON: self-indulgent ME, my harshest critic and greatest fan.

    I do all my messing around on other people’s comment threads, where I get a lot of ideas for just what to write about.

  34. Re: ellentordesillas’ website,

    Well, some people(pro-arroyo) doesn’t like the said site because it is truly an anti-arroyo blogsite. Yeah, call it a ‘scream theraphy’ because it is one way of voicing frustrations in this bogus government of Gloria. Kung nasosopla ang isang blogger dahil pro-arroyo, he can answerback or better yet, better find one that suits him. But it is no question that Ellen’s is the most popular, as evidenced by the numerous responses in EVERY topic.

  35. Meme? You have it upside down. Memes have little to do with being right. Memes are thoughts that have the best survivability. In other words they are popular. Of course, originality counts, i.e. if you started a meme then you are an original, as opposed to merely a meme propagator (e.g. recycler). Memes are not democratic. They are Darwinian. Which means that if you’re a talk show host then your possibility of propagating and introducing memes is higher compared to a nobody.

    Thank goodness for cultural institutions like universities and book reviews where memes get sanitized and reason prevails.

  36. luzviminda,
    Ellen’s site usually gets numerous responses for every topic, but look at the people writing the comments; not too many but repetitive that it is becoming like a Chat Line among friends with like ideas and thoughts, instead of a healthy discourses and discussion of the posted topics by Ms Tordesillas. Of course it is anti-Arroyo site, and a few of of GMA defenders (not necessarily paid mercenaries) strayed and post their own defense which the host will always tolerate, but mostly others will “mob” to shreds. And of course, there is not much choice for some, but to find sites, like MLQ’s where even the protagonists can engaged in heated discussions, without resorting to personal attacks and suspicion of being a “malacanang stooge”.

  37. i think the days of the newspapers, as vehicle of free press that we know, are numbered. here in the u.s., a number of publications are having problems of readership, and therefore, revenue for their continued existence. i heard that both the new york times and the washington post, among other big-time print media outlets, are not doing as they used to. some like new york post have reduced their price to a few cents (.25), while a few others just give them away free to get some circulation and advertising.

    even t.v. networks are no longer the invincible purveyors of the news and opinions that they used to be. they have to resort to a lot of gimmicks to attain respectable ratings, even to the extent of sprinkling their news reporting with considerable amount of “entertainment”.

    blogging is definitely the emerging preferential medium for exchange of ideas and opinion, if not as a source of news and current-event information.

  38. Blogs don’t get too many readers. Ask MLQIII to reveal his google analytics. I bet he doesn’t get 200 readers a day.

  39. Rego,

    Sheila Coronel isn’t the only one who is highly admired in PCIJ.

    But I think her leaving for a teaching job somewhere in New York slowly knocked the winds out of the organization.

  40. I mean that the organization is not perceived to be as what it once was while she was still there hence probably the reaction of the people to discussing the materials there.

  41. Blogs don’t get too many readers. Ask MLQIII to reveal his google analytics. I bet he doesn’t get 200 readers a day

    My main blog gets at least 700 a day and viewership by the thousands. My other blogs average 300 a day and viewership also by the thousands. If your blog depends on the links you made, then it would not even reach 100.

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