Where forth art thou?: Transcript of my correspondence with Straits Times Reporter Melissa Lwee

Monday, November 21, 2005

Transcript of my correspondence with Straits Times Reporter Melissa Lwee

http://xialanxue.blogspot.com will be featured in the "Digital Life" section of the Straits Times tomorrow. To provide better clarity about the site's stand with regards to the Dawn Yang/Yeo issue and to guard against any misquotes, the following transcript is provided for reference.

This was the email I received from the Straits Times Reporter Melissa Lwee last wednesday.


This was my reply.




Technorati tags: ,

P.S. I have decided to re-enable comments. To facilitate discussion (there were too many people with the nick "anonymous" in the past) and to minimize abuse, readers are now required to register an account with blogspot in order to make comments. As readers are required to log in to make comments, this will enable blogspot to easily and accurately track down all IPs as and when necessary. Readers should also understand that I reserve the right to disable comments at any time.

Please read the following disclaimer (adapted from SPH) carefully before making any comments:

DISCLAIMER: YOU AGREE TO BEAR FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTENT POSTED BY YOU. THE AUTHOR OF THIS SITE DOES NOT MONITOR OR EDIT THE CONTENT AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR (1) ANY CONTENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY INFRINGING, INACCURATE, OBSCENE, INDECENT, THREATENING, OFFENSIVE, DEFAMATORY, TORTIOUS, OR ILLEGAL CONTENT, OR (2) ANY THIRD PARTY CONDUCT, TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA.

26 comments:

kungfubunny said...

excellent, no more flooding. incidentally, i always wondered if the blog title "why are you Whorshipping the ground she blogs on?" was intentionally spelt that way.

hornicole said...

still, it was quite mean to put up all those degrading xiaxue photos no?

Candyfeehily said...

Time people should leave the girl alone. I dont think anyone has the right to probe whether or not she has done anything to her face/body.

Being a public person means the person would be more exposed to the public view, that doesnt mean the person HAVE TO answer to all public's curiosity. afterall the side she would face the public is her future work in the media... and that's all she has to be responsible for.

xialanxue said...

Kungfubunny:

Yes It is an intentional pun on the word "worshipping".

xialanxue said...

hornicole:

Those pics were from HWZ EDMW forum. I will consider taking them down if xiaxue emails me nicely. Anyway they have been nicely tucked away from the main page for the longest time.

omfgima1337hax said...

Sorry dude, you lost your bawls with all that red text. And btw, I did not claim expertise on plastic surgery, I did the research an I posted what I found out.

And the article would be really interesting, could you post it up as soon as it becomes avalible? Since I don't have access to Singapore newspapers. kkthanxbye

omfgima1337hax said...

And ya, 80% of people who post comments are either retards who don't know how to read or flaming anonymouses. Their sole aim is to discredit the author and imply that the articles have no credentials to them. That's a fallacious argument and you need not worry about any reprecussions from the law. I will be waiting for your article on the bloggers who got shut down (now that's repression of free speech in its purest form!).

Excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Fallacies are used frequently by pundits in the media and politics. When one politician says to another, "You don't have the moral authority to say X", this could be an example of the argumentum ad hominem or personal attack fallacy; that is, attempting to disprove X, not by addressing validity of X but by attacking the person who asserted X. Arguably, the politician is not even attempting to make an argument against X, but is instead offering a moral rebuke against the interlocutor."

A little bird atop the canopy said...

The issue, if any cared to read Agagooga's expose more carefully, he was not talking about plastic surgery. It's about hypocrisy.

Daniel said...

As usual, the mainstream media is 2 weeks too late. The storm is already dying down to a whimper.

anyway, I thought this blog started as a Xiaxue hate site? One only has to trawl the ealier entries to realise that. And you know how seriously hate sites are taken - not very.
;)
I find your recent veneer of even-handedness and faux professionalism very....disconcerting?

xialanxue said...

Daniel:

The purpose of communications is to achieve understanding. From your choice of words, I would have to say that you are trying too hard.

I remember a GP tutor who once told her students: "Don't impress, express."

xialanxue said...

the12"...

perhaps commenting AFTER reading would help?

Daniel said...

hmm, typing like this comes very naturally to me. As a purported journalist, I have no idea why you would find it esoteric. Perhaps you...write for the New Paper? :D:D:D

Also, I see that you did not address/challenge my assertions - perhaps they can't be.
Well, we'll leave it at that, then ;)

Jess said...

I agree with Daniel entirely. And as a reader, I have to say that I really have no idea what you were trying to "express" in your response to his comment.

It's all nice and good that you're trying to take a "journalistic" (read: as objective as possible) stand on this blog now... but the presentation isn't very convincing.

xialanxue said...

panaphobic:

I was asking Daniel to avoid using words that MIGHT require the average reader to refer to a dictionary for the meanings. And about the xx issue, I have grown tired of explaining it too many times - I will put up a FAQ on this site when I am free.

And with regards to the second part of your comment, everyone's entitled to their opinion and that includes you. So how do you propose I present it? (Well, that's not really a fair question since you do not know the amount and type of information that comes in to my mailbox everyday but you can always try to answer it anyway)

AG said...

"I was asking Daniel to avoid using words that MIGHT require the average reader to refer to a dictionary for the meanings."

i think the average reader would understand, and if they don't, they're below the average - probably one of those morons who don't read before flaming.

xialanxue said...

the12"..

I did say that Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I am just advising you to read before you make any comments.

Maybe you didn't read this:

"To facilitate discussion (there were too many people with the nick "anonymous" in the past) and to minimize abuse, readers are now required to register an account with blogspot in order to make comments. As readers are required to log in to make comments, this will enable blogspot to easily and accurately track down all IPs as and when necessary."

@ster|x said...

wow, u r going to be famous! =) can u post the article out? i dun really have access to ST since they started making ppl pay for the online version =P

darrnot said...

"Not since Sarong Party Girl has any local blogger made such an impact as Dawn Yeo (aka Dawn Yang) has. The 21-year-old, who writes under the moniker Clapbangkiss (http://xanga.com/clapbangkiss), is blogosphere's latest hottie after ranking first on an online beauty pageant and snagging herself a management deal because of her looks. But the blogosphere is now abuzz because of rumours that she went under the knife to get her good looks. MELISSA LWEE goes after the gossip."

WHY ARE YOU WORSHIPPING THE GROUND SHE BLOGS ON?
http://xialanxue.blogspot.com

The letter came in the wake of tomorrow.sg linking a blog post that did an expose on Miss Yeo's suppo- sedly having plastic surgery, in the hopes that she would come clean. For those who want an overview as to what has been talked about in the blogos- phere, stop by here. It is complete with pictures and Miss Yeo's side of the story.

EXCERPT: 'Let me assure you with my experience working in the media industry and covering enter- tainment news that unless you come clean and tell us once and for all the truth (as to whether you have had plastic surgery), the speculations and allegations will haunt you and could adversely affect your career as an artiste. And trust me on this: Those who tell you that bad publicity is still good publicity are just trying to comfort you.

I think you owe it to all your potential fans to clarify things here/explain in your blog with regards to this issue so that we can all put it to a rest. This would be in your very best interest.'

darrnot said...

kinda disappointing article, only interesting thing to note was the reporter's (intentional?) mis-spelling of the blog title "Whorshipping".

potpourri said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ATDI said...

SANTIAGO.- Recientemente se realizó en la Universidad Diego Portales de
Chile el Tercer Congreso Iberoamericano de Periodismo Digital http://www.periodismodigital.udp.cl,
en el que se discutieron diversos temas
relacionados con la nueva forma de hacer y entender el periodismo, en un
mundo donde predominan los sitios web, los blogs, el iPod y otras
tecnologías al servicio de la información.
Protagonistas de este encuentro fueron, más allá de los exponentes, los
propios estudiantes de Periodismo, ávidos por conocer el qué, quién, cuándo
y cómo de los rápidos cambios que vive el mundo gracias a la tecnología e
Internet.

Es por eso que, en una iniciativa única, alumnos de la Universidad del
Desarrollo de Chile http://udd2005.blogspot.com realizaron una completa cobertura al evento, subiendo notas,
entrevistas, audio e incluso videos a un blog. http://www.arturocatalan.cl/congreso

Dentro del material destacado está las entrevistas a la española María José
Cantalapiedra, periodista y docente, quien discutió en el congreso la
evolución de la pirámide invertida y cómo ésta sigue siendo la mejor forma
de redactar una noticia a pesar del nuevo periodismo y las nuevas
tecnologías.

Sobre esto último expuso el chileno Carlos Osorio, ingeniero del MIT, quien
habló de la relación entre periodismo y medios tecnológicos.

El también español Gumercindo Lafuente, del diario El Mundo, se
refirió a los desafíos de los medios online, mientras que el peruano
Diego Peralta, del diario Perú.21 señaló que el periodismo digital al
informar antes ha obligado al periódico ser más de análisis.
Del diario peruano El Comercio, habló en forma especial para el blog de la
cobertura del congreso de los alumnos de la Universidad del Desarrollo el
periodista Juan Carlos Luján, quien se refirió al fenómeno blogs, que
definió como de gran utilidad para los periodistas.

Otra de las cosas interesantes de este sitio web de los futuros periodistas,
es que incluyeron archivos de audio y video, por lo que quienes lo visiten
pueden enterarse de lo ocurrido a través de formatos multimedia. También se
pueden bajar desde el blog algunas presentaciones.



Un abrazo desde lo más austral del mundo: Chile

Irzan said...

Originally this site is supposed to bang Xiaxue, hence the "xialanxue" name, but i don't know why it is now used to bang dawn yang. It's really weird.

Irzan said...

And dear Xlx, you stated in your e-mail that my content in my blog is malicious (or something) referring that you hate dawn yang.

So now may I ask, do you like dawn yang or you hate her for what she did?

Irzan said...

" shuddupfirst said...
Im just wondering, how much is the probabilty of us getting sued leaving comments in a blog? "

Isn't internet is one free space of which where we can say anything we want (read: freedom of speech)?

xialanxue said...

irzan I stated VERY CLEARLY in my email to you that in my entries I did not make any allegations/claims. Your content ALLEGE and ACCUSE me of doing that.

And please write clearly

"And dear Xlx, you stated in your e-mail that my content in my blog is malicious (or something) referring that you hate dawn yang."

In this sentence you are trying to say that I emailed you to inform you that YOUR BLOG has content that ACCUSE me of hating Dawn. Some people may read this wrongly because of the way you wrote it.

I have already stated my stand in the last 2 entries.

And I have also told you several times to link to instead of copy a particular entry you wanted to put on your blog so that the context will be there.

omfgima1337hax said...

Gotta <3 the Sedition Act. It's probably another law passed to hinder people's freedom of speech and suppress genuine comments and discussion (since everyone's shit-fraid to make any comment that can be remotely considered disaffectionate towards the State).
"martial law frightens commoners, sedition frightens intellectuals"

Now all we need are some inquisitors and witch burnings. Run for our lives!!