Friday, May 17, 2013

BEIRUT/NTSC IS BROFESSIONAL REVIEW

Here is it - the whole naked truth. Today I shall reveal who Brofessional Review is.
I AM BROFESSIONAL REVIEW.
There, I said it. I am all of them combined Admin I and Admin NK and whomever else there is on the admins list. If I am writing this, it is because I am siding with every blogger in town - yes, including those I am mentioning below because "first they came for the Jews" (read the entirety of it here). Because next time you will be attacked - not your words, your character - I will be there for you as I am for Brofessional Review today.
It is with much disappointment today that I saw leading bloggers sharing a link exposing the identity of the alleged members of the Brofessional Review gang.  Sure, they may be journalistically untrained due to lack of experience but if today's events are of any guidance, then I am ashamed to say that even our most outspoken bloggers are also journalistically unprofessional - and the person who speaks today is Tarek Chemaly who has started a career in print media as far back as Nov. 2nd 1993 (that's a lot of time, yes).
First, before you endorse any source and start circulating it, you double check its facts. Do we know for sure the information there is correct? Ideally, do we have other sources that confirms this? (I know Brofessional Review were guilty of this, but it is no reason to perpetuate the error and the bias elsewhere). Did anyone of those bloggers sharing the link I am mentioning bother to double check its content with the people it talks about?
Second, if you happen to agree with the source in question, and you have made sure its content is corroborated, do you agree with its wording? With the way it was stated? If so, then several of our leading bloggers in Lebanon are outright homophobic people (including those who were supposed to be homosexuals). Because they were circulating a link - in its entirety - that not just exposed the supposed identity of Brofessional Review bloggers but also contained character defamation regarding their sexual orientation, their looks, and many of their personal attributes.
So is this what our freedom of speech which we have been trying to propagate throughout the blogosphere has come down to? Sharing unconfirmed links which contain personal insults about other bloggers? No matter how much we disagree with their opinions, we cannot do so to them as people - criticize the work of Brofessional Review as much as you want (something they did to other people) but never, ever, attack them as persons (for ALL their faults, their lack of fact checking, they never attacked the person behind the work they were criticizing).
But next time anyone of you bloggers who circulated the link claims they care for human rights or for journalistic ethics, or whatever, my answer will be "first you came for Brofessional Review" and none of you stood up for them as humans. So before anyone talks to me about illegal curfews for the Syrians or standing up for migrant workers, why not try applying that to fellow bloggers?
You want to attack the person(s) behind Brofessional Review? Great, give ME your best shot because:
I AM BROFESSIONAL REVIEW. 

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Tareck,
Professional Journalists don't delete comments. will you delete this comment too?

Tarek Chemaly said...

Jocelyne, of course not. Because you published your full name. In case you did not notice, anyone slandering me was doing so under "anonymous". Cool, good to know someone doesn't like me and actually has a name. By the way this "unprofessional" journalist worked with The Observer London, Paris Match, Colors, Adbusters, Slate, and the list goes on. Not bad for an unprofessional.

Tarek Chemaly said...

Oh by the way Jocelyine, YES, they do delete comments. In case you go to the best news publications you find that a lot of comments get deleted because the feeds are moderated. Stupidly enough I do not moderate my comments thinking people who will post will have the decency to stick by certain common sense ethical standards. Obviously I was mistaken. So I simply tweaked my setting to make sure only people with names can comment! What a surprise - suddenly no more bashing anonymously....

Unknown said...

Dear Tareck,
who said I do not like you? I was just referring to the act you did when you deleted all comments on one of your previous posts. I think those comments injected a healthy amount of discussion online. You just deleted them.

And what's wrong with anonymous identities? Some people have the reason to have anonymous identities, like those guys at professional review. or maybe not?

Tarek Chemaly said...

Good points Jocelyne, I did not think that the day will come where I would apologize for deleting anonymous comments that said "ur a loser, I pity you" "you suck here or on twitter" "you're a jerk" (I am copying and pasting from previous words). So if any anonymous person got offended for deleting them and had his feelings hurt because attacks on my character were a little too much for injecting "a healthy amount of discussion online". Smart move Jocelyne, you are using the same words I used to put Brofessional Review's work into context. Appreciated. Calling me name anonymously is not (BR did not call Maya Zankoul, or whomever else names. They just commented on her work).

Unknown said...

Those hate comments are useless, and I don't believe anyone took them seriously anyways. I was referring to the majority of the comments stating that the work you featured looks like an old popular character created by Impact BBDO. You also deleted the artist's reply. That, for sure, was a healthy discussion. Why did you delete these comments?

The act of using the internet anonymously to bash others is not a brave act. We both agree on that.



Tarek Chemaly said...

Unfortunately Jocelyne they were all sprinkled with personal hate messages. Super Geek has nothing to do with Lipos. This being said, since there was a lot of personal insults I preferred to kake their off the airways. Yes, in the meantime I had to sacrifice Sareen's reply, but it was fine with her.

Anonymous said...

So who's the blogger who revealed the names behind BrofessionalReview?

Tarek Chemaly said...

Nevermind, some vindictive homophobe whose link was spread by less than professional people I am afraid.