Blogging and Ethics and the irresponsibility of one affect a lot people.

1. :  a Web site that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also:  the contents of such a site

And a person that writes in a blog is a blogger.. Not a Journalist… As a blogger myself… I took it upon myself to read up on some things like laws and such about possible recriminations for what one writes online.. remember the new cybercrime law? As a blogger… one has the responsibility to present fact as accurately as possible and as ethical as possible… One doesnt just bash someone or mention a company’s name in a juicy article to get more hits and increased traffic to your site.. the reason for this post? A recent article surfaced on a so and so trending site… news about Duterte refusing to accept cash donations from a Giant Telecom company.. apparently, the news was plagiarized or lifted from the facebook post or Mr. Manny Pinol who hails from M’lang, North Cotabato.. and is from what I gather on his facebook profile is a Journalist.. Here is the original post that came from Mr. Manny’s facebook..

The site where I found the article about the trending site grossly pilfering from Mr. Pinols statement is here:

http://insider.com.ph/giving-bloggers-a-bad-name-pinoytrendingnews-net-stumbles-on-giant-telecom-post/

Basically the story goes that the trending site had this headline:

Duterte reportedly turned down money from Globe Telecom, wins praise from netizens” on January 30, 2105

In no way did Mr. Pinol mention the name of the executive or the Telecom company that met with Duterte to offer their financial support and all that… How come the author of the PinoyTrendingNews had the name of Globe Telecom as the company?

Want to read the article? Too bad.. it’s too late.. apparently PinoyTrendingNews has already taken it down a couple of days after posting.. maybe because of this?

Well, It seems the author finally had some sense knocked into him a couple of days after.. if you read the article from insider.com.. it seems that after the post of Mr. Pinol ( see above) the only thing that the author did was create post in the site.. changing the name of Globe to Giant…but right now.. if you care to check.. the both posts has been taken down completely.. but if you really want to –  search the google cache -http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0WdtI0spnlYJ:pinoytrendingnews.net/duterte-reportedly-turned-down-money-from-globe-telecom-wins-praise-from-netizens/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ph

What can we learn from this?

1. One –  make sure you keep your facts straight.. putting the name of Globe in place of Giant can probably be construed as libel? Defamation?
2. Quoting Mr. Pinol as the source was right in a way.. since it wwas his post.. but saying that it was Mr Pinol that said it was wrong.. maybe another libel case?
3. No editorial oversight –  just because you want to write about it, doesnt mean it needs to be written
4. No other sources support his claim that it was Globe

Cases like this is what smudges the name of the bloggers in today’s times.. just because you can write about something, doesnt mean you must write about it… A blog started out as an online diary for people to share their thoughts and opinions.. but sharing must also be tempered with foresight, caution and a healthy dose of using your brains.. I guess it’s high time that someone or a group starts educating the bloggers out there about the responsibilities of being a blogger or an online publisher..

All in all it was good that he finally took the post down.. but what’s next?