Sir, perhaps it's a sign that blogging is on its way to becoming mainstream here in the Philippines, especially since quite a number of InfoTech journalists are also bloggers (i.e. Erwin Oliva, Joey Alarilla). I'd consider it an honor to be cited.

It's actually a great thing that INQ7 allows its reporters to blog. I understand that CNN prohibits its own reporters from blogging. Can you believe that?

I look at it another way. Reporters are to lazy to research and make their own analysis. It's easier to quote bloggers especially bloggers who write about things within their own fields of expertise.

Maybe its some sort of company policy. Most states in the US employ "hire and fire at will". Maybe they are scared their employees might blog something about the internal workings of their company. I just want to refreshed one of your blogs where employees got fired because of blogging

Hi Sassy,

If that's true then we should see more news stories quoting from bloggers.

I think that would be great for blogging and the media.
-jj

Hi Francs,

Actually, I think CNN wants to avoid a situation where its reporter files a story but his personal opinion may be different. As you know, a reporter talks to 20 people for a story and maybe quotes 1 or 2 of them. The rest of the data is lost. If reporters gave us raw facts through blogs, then the data may deviate from the story published by the media outlet.

-jj

Matagal nang gimmick yan, JJ.

Try this. Write about something controversial. Make sure that the subject has not been discussed by any columnist, online or on print. It's better if you're even ahead of the local news. Get your news straight for foreign papers.

Watch the local columns for the next few days. Voila! There's bound to be a topic similar to yours. Sometimes, you even get the uncanny feeling that your blog entry was just reworded.

Downside, very few journalists know how to make the proper attribution.

That's interesting, Sassy. I haven't had the chance to check that out.

Unfortunately, ideas are free; plagiarism is just bad manners (instead of criminal) and columnists troll the web for ideas.

I was speaking to a friend this morning and he said there are copyright issues with what Erwin did to my blog. Sure there are but my blog's supposed to be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. I just haven't had the time to set it up.

Best and thanks for dropping by. It's an honor to have a top blogger post a comment.
-jj

Also check out Jove Francisco:
http://jovefrancisco.blogspot.com

Jove is an ABC 5 reporter (Malacanang beat). You'd notice his more personal views in his blog, which I doubt can always be broadcasted as mainstream news material.

Angelo