squeak. speak. roar!

So it begins, the ‘attack’ that all journalist gets. Even worse for one who blogs.

My objectivity has been questioned by a commenter named MingLee (hi!) after I defended Nat over the words ‘published writings’ in his blog. MingLee said (s)he understand that term in the academic sense. Reproduced below:

I know a number of people who regularly have their letters to Malaysiakin (sic) published. You’re the first one I ‘know’ who calls it ‘Published Writings’, though.

Technically not wrong, I suppose, but for awhile, I really thought it was of “published writings” of the academic sort.

So I said:

Letters are letters and op-eds are op-eds. Very different. Malaysiakini is a formidable publication, not of the print kind but it is still a publication nonetheless :)

Gooo Nat! :)

MingLee then replied:

politikus assumes I do not hold malaysiakini in high regard. How does it reflect on a journalist or the publication you represent to so quickly jump to conclusions? What happened to Objectivity?

kudos nat, for accepting the comment for what it is. That I thought it might be publications of the academic sort came about because of your academic background. And that association, imo, does not necesssarily and in any way diminish the quality of your work, or the publication it appears in, should it?

To which I retorted:

omg, i’m so biased wei. of courselah! you come to nat’s site and point out say that its some universal truth that the term ‘publish writings’ is one used in an academic sense. you sounded strangely disappointed that nat’s ‘published writings’ were merely ‘letter’s’ in malaysiakini.

you’re the first to say so means the many many many people who has come to this site may not have have thought as you did.

there’s a difference in protecting nat in my personal capacity and in my professional one. i represent myself, you really don’t have to to attack my profession nor my media org.

looks you need to be more objective yourself.

I decided to blog more because from my harmless statement …. dah mulanya people questioning my objectivity and wah, attack my news organisation some more.

*coughs*

I believe in the work that malaysiakini does and I would’ve said the same even if I wasn’t working with them. (sigh, ‘guilty’ by association). I would also defend Nat from any criticisms levelled against him whether offensive, unintended or otherwise. I don’t believe in human rights, I believe in people’s rights. I don’t believe in god. I believe in abortion rights. I believe in capital punishment. I believe in democracy. I believe Umno is keeping rural Malays poor for their own benefit. I believe in nationalism. I believe in the power of music. I believe that smiley faces make a difference in comments.

If all that is going to come back to me in my personal capacity as a blogger and girlfriend simply because I’m a journalist and be told that I lack objectivity then all I can say is …

… lol.

:)