Like most people in the blogosphere, particularly the political blogging community, I got this now extensively-blogged black propaganda against survey-leading presidentible Sen. Noynoy Aquino most probably about the same time as everyone else got theirs.
And it didn’t even take beyond the first few sentences to see through another pathetic email campaign trying so hard to be branded as ‘viral’.
I am no ‘psychologist’ but then again, that sort of ‘assessment’ trying to pass off as a ‘clinical report’ was so poorly written that a Hollywood script would do better by any means of comparison.
I did not even bother to ‘download’ or view the so-called ‘document scans’ attached to the email.
I was having a simple birthday dinner with my son at a faraway mall and I didn’t want to spoil that solemn moment by blogging away to discredit such email.
To my mind, the lie was unmistakable at first glance and unlike the ‘Monsod’s Musings’ email hoax, posting the supposed ‘clinical report’ didn’t even enter my mind. The ‘Monsod’s Musings’ email hoax and this recent ‘Noynoy Psychological Report’ are incomparable. The former prompted clarification, the latter required discernment.
Actually, to say that it even required discernment is to give the poster or shall I say ‘poser’ the benefit of the doubt that such email blasting was done in good faith — or that he/she was an unwitting accessory to the crime.
And even if — and that’s a big “IF” there was a slightest hint of truth to this document — which, by the way has been proven false — no surprise there, it’s still inaproppriate to publish such information in an email, much more in a blog.
In the US, there is such a thing as ‘personally identifiable health information’ which is protected by their constitution. I don’t know if there is such a thing here or anything similar. This law prohibits anyone and considers it a crime to ‘leak’ medical records that are easily identifiable to a person, say, Juan Dela Cruz’s HIV test results.
The reason behind is obvious — because such ‘publishing’ or even ‘transmission’ of info by any means (even casual ‘whisperings’ within the medical community over lunch or coffee) would violate one’s privacy — and of course, it doesn’t end there. There’s tainting of reputation, loss of job, compromised professional and personal relationships, etc. — the list goes on. And we can’t even demand such public disclosure of health records because he’s not even president yet.
Why am I saying this? Because I’d like to stress the point that whichever way you look at it, even considering ‘good intentions’ — if there were any to begin with, this constitutes a clear violation of a person’s right to privacy at the very least. To add the fact that this was all poorly-fabricated lie of a ‘clinical report’ with the most unlikely of ‘psychologist’ — a spiritual man — aggravates the offense and shouldn’t be taken lightly by the aggrieved party.
These guys are not contented with name-calling and had to fabricate a false document just to add a dash of credibility to their accusations. And fortunately for us, we can just chalk it up as another failed attempt at spreading exceedingly foul ‘information’.
It was only this morning that I found out that the same lie was also published in a blog named ‘a political amateur’. As if the plogging (political blogging) community isn’t divided and embattled enough, this poser had to stir the murky water yet again.
I know much has been said about this, within so short a time but what choice do I have when there are now speculations that the originator of this email/blog is within the political blogging community — thanks to the brilliant use of the term “political amateur” (blogger).
Dude, whoever you are, you give plog a bad name!
Political bloggers don’t blog just for kicks. We write to inform and to encourage discussion and participation — not peddle lies in exchange for infamy or a certain ‘high’.
There are some of us, myself included who have no claim to a political reputation or journalistic experience whatsoever, but I suppose it doesn’t take such to realize whether an article is written to form an opinion or generate misconceptions and pure lies.
We don’t blog just because we can or just because we want to.
Also, we don’t spread filthy ‘information’ just because we can. That is irreponsible. And besides, there are plenty of things to write about.
So to everyone, just so you know: We don’t criticize ‘just because’. There is a higher purpose in political blogging. We may not always reach it or live up to it 100 percent of the time, but it’s something we all earnestly aspire to.
Request: To all who received that email from that certain ‘Ricardo Junsay’, please refrain from forwarding it. Also, if you can help it, and I strongly urge you to — do not dignify the accusation by posting the scanned fabricated document online. There’s enough garbage going around the web already — let’s not add to it anymore.