The ‘Golf War’ and the Perils of Blogging

Blogging about the Valley Golf brawl allowed me to let off steam. What that did was give me visceral pleasure – I hate arrogant pricks, particularly arrogant pricks who hold office — but it waylaid my instincts as a journalist.

By Carlos H. Conde

I’ve been thinking long and hard lately about blogging and how, at least in my case, it fosters intellectual indolence, which can be detrimental to a journalist like me.

Blogging is a great invention. Used properly, it complements journalism in ways that are not possible five or 10 years ago. More importantly, blogging democratizes expression and has proved crucial in the struggle by many citizens in repressive regimes to be heard.

Since the Pangandaman case exploded, however, I have been entertaining the idea that maybe blogging is best left to people who have advocacies and causes but are shut out by the mainstream media. Or those who have interesting things to say about themselves, or what they had for dinner last night, or why The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a charming but tedious movie.

Blogging was not invented for journalists and, as such, may not be an ideal medium for them. (Indeed, some even believe that blogging was invented precisely to get around the conventions of mainstream journalism.) It is clear to me now that journalism is one hat, blogging is another. And a journalist, in my view, cannot wear two hats — especially those that, because of their respective nature, simply don’t fit if worn at the same time.

I would be lying if I said that this self-examination was not prompted by the so-called “golf war” and how it played out, i.e. that the Valley Golf and Country Club management has practically exonerated the Pangandamans, who have been vilified on the Internet left and right.

Although I still stand by what I wrote in this space – that the Pangandamans behaved like warlords and that Nasser Pangandaman Sr. did not deserve his appointment as peace negotiator because, hell, he couldn’t even stop a simple misunderstanding from escalating into a brawl – it was an incomplete assessment of what had happened.

The problem lies, of course, with the fact that I, like the gazillion of bloggers out there, relied solely on the word of Bambee dela Paz, whose account of the incident was, as can be expected, biased. Although she may not know it at the time, her post was a classic example of propaganda warfare: if you want to control the agenda, put out your version first, as quickly as you can. The more heartbreaking the tale, the better.

From a propaganda standpoint, the odds were stacked against the Pangandamans. They not only belonged to a political class that is easy to pigeonhole and excoriate, they behaved precisely as people who belong to that class would behave. Plus, they apparently do not blog.

Bambee dela Paz certainly was well within her right to publish that post. And I’m glad that she did, because, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, blogging can be a tool to correct an injustice. She merely used a medium that allowed her – no, expected her — to do exactly what she did.

The same can be said of the other bloggers, whose outrage, as can be gleaned from their posts and the comments sections of their blogs, quickly turned into the digital equivalent of a mass lynching, which is fine, because the medium allows that. I was the guy in red shirt with the baseball bat shouting “Let’s kill these bastards!”

As a journalist, I should have known better.

In itself, the brawl at the Valley Golf was a fascinating story, with an even fascinating backstory from each side: a family of powerful politicians from a region known for their goons and guns versus a family of golfers trying to make it big in golf.

I felt strongly about what had happened (at least according to Bambee) but instead of investigating the incident and get to the truth of it, as any journalist ought to do and as I have done in other stories in the past, I put on my other hat and merely blogged about it.

Did I attempt to get the side of the Pangandamans? I did not. Did I investigate whether what Bambee dela Paz wrote was accurate or truthful? I did not. My outrage had been vented, so why bother? It was so goddamn easy.

Blogging about the golf brawl allowed me to let off steam. What that did was give me visceral pleasure – I hate arrogant pricks, particularly arrogant pricks who hold office — but it waylaid my instincts as a journalist.

Let me make it clear that I am not blaming blogging per se, just as I am not faulting radio for the rise of so-called shock jocks or newspapers for those pseudo-journalists, called hao-shiao, who extort money from politicians and corrupt customs officials.

What happened in my case is more the result of a lack of discipline to fight the temptation — strongest among bloggers — to shoot first and ask questions later. That baseball bat was so conveniently within reach.

But it must be said that, because of its nature, blogging is such that it is very easy to be lazy, irresponsible and careless with it.

(Next: Why blogging and journalism don’t mix)

Carlos H. Conde is a journalist based in Manila. He writes for The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and GlobalPost.com. Several of his work can be viewed here.