Bloggers of the world.........
Tomorrow (Tuesday) may, or may not, be a day of global blogging action organised by the Committee to Protect Bloggers. The subject of tomorrow’s protest is the detention by the Iranian government of Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi, two Iranian bloggers. Freedom of speech and expression is something we take for granted here in the ‘free’ west and it is important that we defend it by any means necessary.
Blogging is hot news at the moment. There is a growing movement in the mainstream western media to discredit blogs and those of us who write them. This is especially true in the US where freedom of speech is probably the most under threat thanks to the chimp’s ‘Patriot’ Act. (By the way; welcome to Europe, George. Please try not to start a war while you're here) Blogs you will be told are one sided. They are biased and have agendas that run contrary to the ‘mainstream’ non-biased media organisations. But the truth is of course, we all have agendas and motives. I have at least one, as do BBC News. Fox News certainly do, as do The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The NY Times etc. So what? If you don’t question the information you are fed, all of the information you are fed you deserve to live in ignorance and darkness. And believe me you will.
Blogs should not be seen as contrary to the mainstream media but complimentary to it. The more sources you have for your information, the more you will think. The more you think, the more questions you ask. The more questions you ask the LESS the powers that be will get away with their sound bites and their fluff.
So as I’ve been writing this I’ve been thinking about the Committee to Protect Bloggers. An American based blog having a pop at Iran. I’ve previously been critical of the present demonisation of Iran by the US authorities. Are the blogging community being played at their own game? Is this a clever attempt to fight fire with fire? Or has my cynicism reached critical mass? I really don’t know. But I’m asking the questions.
Blogging is hot news at the moment. There is a growing movement in the mainstream western media to discredit blogs and those of us who write them. This is especially true in the US where freedom of speech is probably the most under threat thanks to the chimp’s ‘Patriot’ Act. (By the way; welcome to Europe, George. Please try not to start a war while you're here) Blogs you will be told are one sided. They are biased and have agendas that run contrary to the ‘mainstream’ non-biased media organisations. But the truth is of course, we all have agendas and motives. I have at least one, as do BBC News. Fox News certainly do, as do The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The NY Times etc. So what? If you don’t question the information you are fed, all of the information you are fed you deserve to live in ignorance and darkness. And believe me you will.
Blogs should not be seen as contrary to the mainstream media but complimentary to it. The more sources you have for your information, the more you will think. The more you think, the more questions you ask. The more questions you ask the LESS the powers that be will get away with their sound bites and their fluff.
So as I’ve been writing this I’ve been thinking about the Committee to Protect Bloggers. An American based blog having a pop at Iran. I’ve previously been critical of the present demonisation of Iran by the US authorities. Are the blogging community being played at their own game? Is this a clever attempt to fight fire with fire? Or has my cynicism reached critical mass? I really don’t know. But I’m asking the questions.
posted by phylos @ 21:44
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