Predictions

It seems there is a storm brewing in a teacup (more, and more, and more), though its a storm i predicted would happen: the clash between traditional media and blogs.

And who better than to fight this inevitable fight than two of our nation's most prominent representatives of either medium: the NST (the famed champions of Jalan Riong) and Jeff Ooi (Malaysia's most famous blogger).

A quick check at Project Petaling Street tells me that a number of prominent Malaysian bloggers have picked up on the issue and blogged about it. Could it be just a matter of time before NST's big guns get into the act as well? Just today, heir-apparent-to-be, Khairy Jamaluddin more or less demanded an apology from Jeff for hosting the offending Anwar (who was already banned from Screenshots a day before Berita Harian ran the initial story on Oct 2).

Its a trying time for Jeff, and my sympathies go out to him. A reality check for everyone: the NST group is HUGE with enormous resources and a whole lot of clout; with a readership of hundreds of thousands, if they run something front-page, people are going to believe them, much more so that they will Jeff who is but one man, though he has well-meaning support from many others. A classic David v Goliath match-up.

One thought though: while he spends his time fire-fighting these next few days or weeks, think of all the things he ISN'T able to blog about. I wonder whether this could all be an elaborate diversion to get Jeff's eye off the ball, though what "ball" this could be, i have no idea (and maybe neither does Jeff).