CITY GIRL: Enough is enough, we must now call these bloggers’ bluff
I am a blogger (www.njokichege.com). I find blogging extremely freeing and satisfying. I blog whenever I can.
Blogs also write about me all the time; when they are not copy-pasting my articles to their blogs. They have christened me ‘Njoki Chege – the controversial female blogger’.
Occasionally in bars, a few people walk to me and ask me ‘Are you that kablogger?” to which I smile sheepishly and respond: “Nah, we just look alike.”
The truth is, I hate being called a blogger. I hate the tag ‘blogger’ and when people think all I do is blog, blog and blog. I am a journalist and columnist who just happens to be a blogger, for God’s sake!
Why do I hate being called a blogger? You see, years back, the tag ‘blogger’ was cool. It meant you not only had a laptop and internet, but you also knew your way around the blogosphere. Having a blog was even considered an achievement.
I remember dreaming about having a blog – you know, my personal space ‘in the internet’.
Well, that is all gone now. I love blogging but I hate being called a blogger because there is a crop of bloggers who are giving blogging a bad name and the thought of being placed in the same category as those vile ne’er-do-wells churns my stomach.
I am talking about those broke, barely-schooled riff-raffs masquerading as bloggers who are poisoning the blogging pool by broadcasting lies and gossip just to drive traffic to their poorly designed blogs and websites. I am writing about those keyboard activists who lack content and depth but still blog for the sake of it.
They are party spoilers. They thrive on libel and slander. Their daily bread is character assassination. They live to defame innocent people by perpetrating lies and made-up stories.
GRAB ATTENTION
Their lifeline is gossip. Their happiness is your downfall. These so-called bloggers sensationalise headlines to grab people’s attention and use very strong phrases like ‘Njoki Chege attacks men’ or ‘Njoki Chege roasts broke men”.
In a desperate attempt to grab attention, these bloggers – most of them university drop-outs – poke the noses of big corporates by writing malicious material about them so that the corporates can approach them to buy them off or give them contracts to promote their products on their blogs.
They break all the rules of creative writing with poorly-written articles, stinking grammar and poor flow of copy. These cut-rate bloggers, ladies and gentlemen, are the masters of plagiarism and piracy.
They lift people’s work from other websites, steal photos without attribution and generate fake quotes from sources to appear credible.
Some of them are tribal bigots on some politicians’ payroll, and their modus operandi is to spread hate and lies against certain communities.
I daresay that this bad crop of bloggers are no better than hookers hawking their dignity to the highest bidder.
They will dance to your tune and bend over backwards as long as you pay them enough to keep their blogs running.
I am in a foul mood today, I might go berserk. It is a big shame to the journalism profession that some media houses own blogs that perpetrate lies and false information about innocent Kenyans.
These blogs quote fake social media accounts and embarrass themselves with lame stories, stolen pictures and videos of women being stripped.
LAW AND ETHICS
Whatever happened to media law and ethics? And why is a ‘respectable’ media house running a gossip blog that publishes photos of nude women? Are we selling our media ethics to the highest bidder? And how low are you willing to stoop to earn a few more coins?
These narcissists sell made-up stories about people’s marriages, relationships and personal lives, causing untold anguish and psychological torment to their victims. Little wonder a cabinet secretary is now in court seeking justice against a blogger who wrote nasty things about her.
Way to go madam and I pray that your pursuit of that maligner be fruitful and that the courts may make an example out of him.
The problem with Kenyans is that we have accommodated these parasites for far too long in our midst. It’s high time we made some of them to pay for the utter folly they upload on the internet.
Too many fake bloggers are getting away with far too much and I am disgusted at the level of impunity with which they operate.
I know far too many people who have been maligned and embarrassed on these blogs. A serious Kenyan with cojones of steel should now take the battle to these bloggers, sue them and ensure they are jailed for their sins.
It’s high time we smoked these bloggers out of their single-rooms in Kinoo and dragged them to the public square to face the guillotine.
We must not allow these miserable ignorami to hold us hostage with their malicious blogs as if they own the country. Kwani hao ni nani?