Another Way of Looking at the mrbrown Affair

In one of Cherian George's recent blog entry (actually, it was the second of a three-part musing), he raised a unique view on MICA's letter, which resulted in the suspension of mrbrown's TODAY column.

In this post, entitled WHEN BLOGGERS ENTER MSM, PART 2 (MSM stands for mainstream media, I believe), he suggested that the letter was meant to tell the editors (specifically those in TODAY) that this kind of content is unacceptable in a medium that is widely read by the general public.

Personally, I think that without knowing how the connection within the mainstream media and the government works, it is hard to speculate how much direct influence the latter has over the former. If we assume that there is minimal influence, then MICA's letter can be seen as a way of telling TODAY that the infamous OB (out-of-bounds) markers have been breached. Alternatively, we can also see it as a staged progression of events; the suspension of mrbrown's column without the MICA letter would appear very unjustified. MICA kicked off the ball, and TODAY has to keep it rolling.

Whatever the situation is, it has never occurred to me (or from what I've read so far, much of the blogosphere) that the target audience of the letter is the mainstream media, to remind them of the existence of OB markers and where they lie, even if approximately. I think only sharp thinkers who is/was in the industry will see it from such a direction (Cherian George used to be an editor for The Straits Times).

Anyway, it turns out that mrbrown has released a satirical podcast regarding this event.