Another Annoying Article By The Straits Times

As my regular readers know, I have a rather poor opinion of the local press. In particular, the Straits Times regularly annoys me for a wide variety of reasons. If you simply go through my blog, you'll see many past instances where I have patiently exposed their errors, shallow thinking and poor judgment.

Today, your Straits Times Annoying Article of the Day is an article by Carl Skadian, who is so senior a journalist that he really ought to know better. Carl is unhappy with the three seditious bloggers, and so is Mr Wang (see my earlier posts), but here Carl has commited the gross error of massive over-generalisation. He writes as if the vast majority of bloggers are also wildly racist, and anti-this-religion and anti-that-religion.

Of course, this is simply untrue, and if Carl had done just a little more homework for his article, he would have known better. This is rather ironic, because Carl writes in his article today that:

"... checking facts seems to be the last thing on bloggers' minds unlike, say, mainstream publications which, for the most part, do their darnedest to make sure what they publish is accurate.

Well, I don't think that Carl has done his darnednest to make sure that his own article is accurate, and if he HAS done his darnednest, well, it then goes to show that he does not really know how to use the Internet. For he had simply surfed around a little in the Singapore blogosphere, he would have found that while huge crowds of bloggers are discussing the sedition cases with great interest, not a single soul is saying that what those three individuals wrote was right. All the discussion merely centres around HOW those three individuals ought to be dealt with.

Let's take a look at Car's article in greater detail:

Porn? No, blogs bug me more
With inaccurate and inflammatory postings on the Internet, how do we keep kids from believing everything they read?
ST Life!, By Carl Skadian

THE past few weeks have thrown up another worry about children and the Internet, as if parents don't have enough on their hands.

I'm talking about blogs.

As a journalist, I'm naturally wary of blogs already, mainly because bloggers are wont to throw accuracy out the window.

That's because checking facts seems to be the last thing on bloggers' minds unlike, say, mainstream publications which, for the most part, do their darnedest to make sure what they publish is accurate.

For bloggers, saying what they feel like saying seems to be de rigueur, consequences be damned.

So there's his broadbrush. Instantly all bloggers are transformed into little monsters preying on the vulnerable minds of your helpless children. Monsters, monsters everywhere, and it seems that according to Carl Skadian that means all bloggers. In one fell swoop, he tars all bloggers with the same brush, including:

Dr Randy Kluver, Postmodern Areopagus, a blogger and the Executive Director of the Singapore Internet Research Centre, and an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University.

Cherian George, Singapore: New Media Politics & The Law, and Air-Conditioned Nation, a blogger and assistant professor at the School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University; adjunct senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies; and ex-Straits Times journalist for 10 years.

Tan Kin Lian, Tan Kin Lian's Blog, a blogger and CEO of NTUC Income, Singapore's largest local insurance company.

Penny Low, My NDP, a blogger, and Member of Parliament, People's Action Party.

Gilbert Koh, Reader's Eye, a blogger, ex-Deputy Public Prosecutor, a well-known local poet and the winner of the National Arts Council-Singapore Press Holdings Golden Point Award 2005.

Alfian Saat, Alfian's Secret, a blogger and an award-winning poet, short-story writer and playwright, and Singapore's Young Artist of the Year in 2001.

Loy Hui Chieh, Singapore Angle, a blogger and a National University of Singapore senior tutor with the Arts & Social Sciences Faculty.

Thum Ping Tjin, Channel Fred, ex-national swimmer, Olympian, Harvard alumni and the first Singaporean to swim across the English Channel.

Lee Kin Mun and Benjamin Lee, very well-known bloggers and also newspaper columnists for the SPH-owned TODAY newspaper. Better known as Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi respectively.

... among many others. Congratulations, all of you are now more disreputable than porn stars.

Okay, fine, Mr Carl Skadian. If you want to believe that professors, ex-ST journalists, PAP MPs, award-winning poets and playwrights and artists, Deputy Public Prosecutors, Chief Executive Officers, philosophy academics, Singapore's sports heroes and SPH newspaper columnists can all infect and pollute and destroy your children's minds, go ahead. You know your own children best. Perhaps there is really something very .... UNUSUAL ... about them.

As I said, blogging, to me, is the biggest danger out there. It's also given me more work to do when it comes to my children.

Now, I have to find a way to keep my kids from believing what they read when they come across such blogs.

Better warn them about newspapers too, Carl. Especially those right here in Singapore.