Saturday, December 19, 2009

A Heart for Luna Maya, A Finger for Infotainment Reporters

Since my last attempt to write a satire about the-whole-Luna-Maya-thing went haywire, I will now write in plain language.
First, my stand point.
1.    I think anything related to gossipy infotainment shows should go to mm... somewhere (I'm not allowed to say the H word, ssh...).
2.    Oh, and the rest of the celebrities who didn’t stand up for her could go with them too.
After we’re clear about that, now let’s get down to business.

***

Infotainment reporter – what kind of a job is that anyway?
Well, infotainment reporters are people who make a living by reporting the same thing all the time. Gossip.
Yep, all those information about someone famous’ private life that the public doesn’t need to know.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to even call them REAL reporters.
You know, the ones that give REAL news.
Compare these headlines,

“Cici is finally a Divorcee!” and “The Climate Conference Comes Out a No-Brainer”.

How someone could consider the first one to be some kind of news bewilders me.
That’s why I don’t think they have the same privilege the other kinds of reporters have.

For instance, they don’t get to say, “The public needs to know!”
I’m saying this because infotainment reporters sometimes use these magic words to justify their violent means to create their stories.
Well, my comment is, “Really?”
Does the public need to know if Caca is finally in a relationship, or if Cucu did have a break-up?
The public needs to know things that CONCERN them only.
Issues about humanity, war, economics, politics, the environment, and many other things are for the public to concern.
I don’t think someone’s private matters are among those issues.
So please don’t say because the public needs to know. It proves how a bunch of idiots you really are.
It’s basically like raping girls you like because “if you have a dream, you have to reach it no matter what”.
Don’t blow it out of context.

I also don’t like how infotainment reporters say that the celebrities get their success solely because of them.
I don’t know, but I always think that their OWN work also counts for their success.
It's just the natural process: they work their asses off, people like to see them so they want to see them more, their demands increasing, and so on.
Sure, publicity helps, but it’s far from “a sole cause to their success” like some idiot infotainment show hosts claim.
And it bugs me more when they say it like it is some form of a selfless act.
“It seems that Luna Maya has forgotten the reason she was so successful. Without the effort of the infotainment reporters, there won’t even be..,” and so on.
For God’s sake, infotainment reporters only do it because it will earn them their living! Besides, it's not like they always say good things about celebrities they cover.
It’s definitely not at all a selfless act. It's parasitic. They only publish celebrities that already gain some popularity on their own. I mean, will they publish me? Of course not. Who would want to read or watch something about me?
They are leeches, sucking the blood of celebrities.
Hm..
Come again, they are far worse than that. At least leeches do not think they are doing a selfless favor for their host.

To have the media controlled by this idiotic people has made me lost my hope to Man.
An uneducated community, sadly to say, just like what we have here in Indonesia, will certainly eat something like this up and let the media decide what to think and believe.
It’s a new form of fascism,
that is run by idiots.
God, can there be worse things?

And one other thing, the fact that the other celebrities fail to stand up for Luna Maya for God knows what reason (ass kissing? cowardice?) has started to taken its toll through these events:
-    Some infotainment reporters felt UNDERMINED recently because of the habit of a singer, Ello, who always ditched his show the second it was over, depriving the interviews infotainment reporters hope for. They didn’t just say their feelings out loud, they even threw away Ello’s pre-given CDs in an act of protest.
-    The emergence of some stupid comments by infotainment reporters like,
o    “It’s the risk of being a celebrity, live with it.” (Yeah, I agree. But I don’t think it liberates them to do just about ANYTHING to get their stories)
o    or countless other derogatory remarks aimed to Luna Maya that are very out of place, unfair, and plainly evil (such as the one that accuses her of faking her motherly reaction to Ariel’s daughter just to win the heart of his father)

Who do they think they are anyway?

12 comments:

  1. I doubt there are REAL reporters in Indonesia..I think all reporters are blackmailers who take advantage of other people..they are much worst than a leech I agree..Fuckin Indonesian Reporters..It really don;t matter whether they are gossip reporters or news reporters they are all fucked up. The only real reporters are clark Kent =P

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  2. o yeah welcome back bro ^^

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  3. ahahahahaha...
    I thought Clark Kent was faking it?

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  4. yeah see the irony?

    They even corrupt superman! those fucking reporters! not to mention peter parker (paparazzi) bwahahaha

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  5. Long live BBC UK..Screw Indonesian Infotainment...hahaha...can I post this at my facebook's notes, whether to add a link to this blog or to write your name as the author not will be yours to decide...

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  6. sure, anyway you like it.
    I'd be honored.

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  7. Well wongky, considering murder and torture cases against reporters in this country (many still unsolved), I guess there are REAL reporters in this wonderful nation.

    Infotainment?
    hmm..another excess when you have over-populated city (notice how the stories mainly made in Jakarta), only one firm doing the rating research, and media firms solely using that rating.
    Perhaps its more fitting to say that it is Badtainemnet.

    infotainment 'reporter'?
    by-product of the industry.
    I don't see them as reporter myself, but the problem is not them. It's the mindset of Infotainment.
    Just check-out E!Channel. It's infotainment, in a much better way.

    * I'm a reporter based in Jakarta. Excuse the bias.

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  8. @andre:
    heh? you're obviously offended.. that means you're either a reporter or.. clark Kent :p
    I don't expect to meet one, and offend one, i'm just joking. and if you're superman please forgive me (T_T)

    Now let's get serious. I HAVE never met a honest reporter at least here in the small part of east borneo. all of them are all blackmailers (one had actually trying to threatened me in the hospital) They don't look for stories to tell, they simply.. looking for sensations. So I don't really think that it's weird for someone who torture and murder THAT kind of reporter,besides this is Indonesia.

    When i'm home I'd love to have a conversation with you, I think you're a real reporter,the one that almost extinct in indonesia.

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  9. ...and i doubt that you even work in an indonesian media company. please CMIIW.

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  10. @wongky: nagh, I'm not offended by any means, and I knew you were just joking around.
    As you illustrated, all of us have our unique mindset, in which personal experiences played a huge factor.
    Experience always context-ed our judgment.

    My point was, IMHO, we need to draw the line for avoiding judgment based on that experiences alone. Generalising is potentially dangerous.
    Therefore in this case, it would be irrelevant in which media I'm working.

    Some example of 'real' journos can be found in www.kickandy.com. Last week they had a story on a local Balinese reporter murdered after running a piece on graft by an official.

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  11. humm yeah generalizing is bad i agree. but aren't your peers do have somekind of basic rules to prevent the naughty journalist? what do your fellow reporters think about this case of luna maya because i've watched the newspaper and it seems that nobody from the media blames this "infotaiment-scroundel" sorry for the bad language.

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  12. @wongky: sorry, just read it.
    To keep this comment as short as possible, the most important thing is ethics, true to the idea of journalism: fair, balance, according facts, free from bias, and has impact to general public. Other things are conducts like not receiving (or asking) any money for news/from news sources, being polite, etc.
    There're Dewan Pers, AJI, PWI and so on to facilitate, mentoring, mediating and monitoring. But their scope is very narrow, so most of the monitoring is done by the media company itself. This, requires even larger responsibility. Ethics' violation is severe and once you've done it, it'll be difficult to find decent job afterwards.
    Unfortunately, there aren't many media upholding high standards of ethics and integrity. As is, it would take decades, especially for local media to meet that standards.
    It's frustrating indeed, but if we look at the larger scope, we're a young democracy, and free press is even younger. The biggest democracy (U.S.) needed centuries before having a good democracy and a strong press.
    -
    for infotainment, as I've mentioned before, the real problem is in the mindset which defines infotainment. Really, do we need 8 hours long of gossips every day!?
    Are they fair? no
    balance? no
    according to facts? only partially, rests are unfounded rumours.
    free from bias? no
    has impact to general public? they would argue it has.
    -
    journos in an event, seeing other journo who's not a regular would say: "hi, where are you from?" or
    "are you new, or replacing your friend?" --> (s)he is one of us.
    when seeing infotainment's ppl: "what are they doing here?" --> they're not of of us.
    AJI doesn't acknowledge infotainment 'reporters' as reporters.
    -
    in Luna Maya's case, actually there were several media parties came in defense, was written and aired. But we have other concerns besides her, say..like rice stocks and KPK's weakening, so media cannot run story on Luna Maya for an extended period.
    Only infotainment does that, because...yeah, it's 'them'
    In general, I must admit that Luna Maya coverage was muted in the mainstream media.
    -
    for your case, a reporter threatening anyone is abusive and can be considered criminal act which can be brought before the court. Or you can just report the person to AJI rep in that area or to Dewan Pers in Jakarta. Or write a letter to that media and national media on unpleasant behaviour.
    Reporters can only sue (or threat to sue) to parties who are witholding important information for the public, i.e. pandemic bird flu.

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