Bloggers as Liars

In recent times, so many people have become bloggers - a development that's really pleasing to me. Information dissemination is a worthwhile activity, especially at this time and in this generation. I have read several blogs and thoroughly enjoyed them. While many of them provided celebrity news and never-seen-before celebrity photos, others provided political and life analyses from an angle I never even thought of.

But then, as interesting as this development is, I am getting worried about the fact that blogging has become a competition in some quarters, as everybody wants to report 'breaking news' first. The effect of this 'competition' is that such 'breaking news' have ended up becoming 'breaking lies'. These days, I read some blogs and just shake my head. 

I have always believed in objectivity; so the pull-him-down stories are really not going down well with me. As much as I believe that celebrity buzz generates traffic, there's a need to be objective and rely less on rumours. When Zaaki Adzay's news broke, I just laughed at many bloggers' versions of the story because a friend of mine who happens to be Zaaki's neighbour gave me the gist before the news broke. Except for Linda Ikeji and those who copied from her blog, others just cooked up lies.

Then came the 'Lagbaja unmasked' story. Again, unverified rumour was published as though the musician unmasked in the presence of the bloggers.

And on Sunday, the 'Ayuba beaten to stupor for lateness' story went viral. As soon as I read the story, I just shook my head in sadness. Yes, Ayuba got to the venue of the event late because of the Lagos-Ibadan  expressway traffic; yes, the client was angry; but NO, he was not beaten at all. I got the blow-by-blow account of the event because my friend was there!

I know that many of us are in it for the money, but we must also realise that damaging other people's lives because of our quest for money is as good as armed robbery. The power of a blogger is more massive than we can ever imagine, and the uproar that greeted the Aluu killing is a pointer to this fact.

We all cannot be like Linda Ikeji, Olorisupergal or Omojuwa, whose occupation is blogging; but we can be like Ali Baba - blog when you have a material and make your blog as personal as possible.

Most importantly, blog for the passion you have for it. Linda didn't get to where she is by chasing money first. Anybody can blog, but it takes passion to build a brand.

I rest my case.