Can bloggers be pigeonholed?

I saw this on 5xmom’s site and I got all riled up.

Can bloggers be classified?

Am I a professional blogger? No. I have a normal day job.

Does that make me an irresponsible blogger who spreads rumours and tells lies? I hardly think so!

But this is what our dear Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin is saying. In his eyes, a professional blogger is someone responsible and truthful:

He said he believed that professional bloggers were those who were more responsible in ensuring that their web content was based on the truth and not rumours.

The converse then is true – non-professional bloggers are irresponsible and do not ensure that their web content is truthful and contain rumours.  

So instead of making us register our blogs, they now want us to be classified. Professional and non-professional. What is the criteria for such classification? I don’t know. I doubt he does as well. As I was saying before, before shooting off his mouth, please would someone just get the man a blog already?

There are so many free bloghosts out there if he doesn’t want to take out money from his pocket. I won’t talk about other people’s pockets because that would be rumour-mongering right? You don’t want to be visiting me in prison right? So, I didn’t say that right?

So, Datuk Seri, take it from me. Try your hand at blogging. See what the fuss is about. Maybe you’d enjoy writing about what you eat for breakfast every morning. Some people do. They are called food bloggers. Do they tell lies and spread rumours? No. They are just people who enjoy writing about the food they eat. Are they professional bloggers? I don’t think so. Most hold a day job.

Or maybe you enjoy golfing. Write about golf. There are people who do. Does it make them liars and rumour-mongers? No. They are just people writing about what they like.

Or maybe you had a bad day at work, someone pissed you off in the office and you just want to rant a little to people who don’t know who you are. Voila! You have your own blog. Something like what I have here. A space where I write about what happens to me everyday, what I eat, what I cook, what I enjoy. A space where I have found some friends I’d never have found otherwise.

Does that make me a liar and rumour-monger? I hardly think so. I don’t even care about how things seem to be on a downward spiral. Its evident from my last post. But when I read about people wanting to pigeonhole me as a professional or non professional blogger, that’s when I get upset. Yes, there are nasty people out there who are out to get the Government. There always are. But they are the minority. Why use a trawler to catch all the fish in the sea when you can just use a net or fishing rod to catch that one or two that you want?

Did you not read in The Star that the majority of bloggers out there write mostly about food? Yes, food. We all need to eat. What easier topic to write or talk about than what fills your stomach. They don’t want to tell lies, Datuk Seri, they don’t want to spread rumours. They don’t care about whether they are called professional or non-professional bloggers. They just want to be left in peace to tell the world about what they ate for dinner yesterday at that new restaurant in town that no one has written about yet.

That’s all we want. So don’t come and tar us all with the same brush. Don’t pigeonhole us. Don’t get the bloggers mad, because you acknowledge in this press statement and in the previous attempt to register us, that the bloggers are a force to be reckoned with. You don’t like that. So, don’t make it an issue. You see, by making me upset, I dedicate a whole post to this issue. I told you to get a blog before. Your PR rankings will shoot through the roof, I assure you. Trust me, you’d like that, when the time comes for you to sign up with PPP. USD you know. At the current exchange rate of RM3.40 you know.

So, before talking and burying your head deeper in the sand, take a walk in our shoes. Get yourself a blog. Everyone’s doing it. Why not you? Who knows, you might even like it. Then all this insanity will stop. Or should I wait for the PM to come back from Melbourne and tell us that this is all just hangat hangat tahi ayam (hot air)…. again?