Still on the Malu Fernandez controversy: Some questions and insights (and is she back again in the Manila Standard Today?)

And I almost thought I'm finished posting about the Malu Fernandez controversy. But these things are too important to just throw them away.

First, now that Fernandez supposedly resigned (but more on this a bit later), other crucial question needs to be addressed: Are the editors at People Asia (or at least the ones who edited Fernandez's piece before it got published) not culpable for deciding to publish the article nevertheless?

Here's Freedom Watch on the issue:

Why did People Asia decide to publish Malu Fernandez's story anyway?
Source: Freedom Watch

University of the Philippines journalism department chair Rachel Khan raised an important question in the still raging Malu Fernandez controversy: Why did the People Asia editors let Malu Fernandez's article "From Boracay to Greece!" pass through?

While the blogosphere is full of castigating remarks against Fernandez, Khan wrote in her blog last August 25, "(N)o one seems to realize that the editors who decided to publish that piece of trash are equally--if not even more culpable--of insensitivity and bigotry against the hard working Filipino overseas workers. Who made the editorial decision to publish the article in the first place??!!!"

Read more here.

And for Fernandez's supposed resignation from Manila Standard Today and People Asia, I have to verify this tomorrow whether this really came out (it looks like it came from Standard Today), but take a look at this:



Got this from this Smoke's blog through The Philippine Experience. Is this true or what? Will post about this later when I can check the actual issue. Repeat: I am not sure about this yet. So for now, let's take this photo with a grain of salt, okay?

Some things can be seen from the whole issue: First: Blogs have become not just a source of opinion, but also of news; Second: That this is one of the few instances in which news got first picked up by the online medium before the mainstream media noticed it (although the rapid rise of the local blogging community has made it sure that this is not the first time it's going to happen); and third, that citizens have become increasingly critical of the press and the role it plays in our society.