"Toothless" Journalism and UNcredible bloggers

This article over at thecicak.com nails the bug right in its face and unearths the age old discussion of Malaysian press freedom. Whilst, and I'm sure you've read about this before, this counter punches alternative media.

So what's a honest-to-goodness Malaysian citizen to read nowadays to just get an honest-to-goodness perspective of what's happening in the country? If we have journalists who can only paint rosy pictures and bloggers who spread lies, there doesn't seem like much else to read.

Of course, that depends on which camp you're on.

One side would have you believe that it's new media that's uncredible and therefore should be dismissed without a second thought. These "bloggers" or "citizen journalists" don't do their research before shooting off their views, and should be summarily ignored.

In the other camp, the mainstream media is pictured as suppressed. The only way to let the truth out is to do it online.

I'm not for either camp, as there's truth to both and bad examples of both camps. You've got great journalists and great bloggers. At the same time, I've come across some pretty poor examples of both.

But what I'm really wondering is... does your average Malaysian really care? I studied that the Media was the fourth institution of society, meant to be a watchdog. So, whilst we're watching out, who're we watching out for? Do they even care?

Gah...