Something old
It's tradition that top editors are political appointees. State awards indicate their sanctified position in the grand scheme of things. The Star's Wong Chun Wai for example has triple Datukship – from Malacca, then Selangor and this year a Federal Territories 'Datuk Seri' title conferred by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
Even at a cursory glance, one can see that services to journalism has yielded Datuks galore, among them: Bernama's Datuk Seri Azman Ujang and Datuk Yong Soo Heong;
from the Big Four of Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, NST and Star – Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak, Datuk Johan Jaafar, Datuk Khalid Mohamed, Datuk Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, Datuk Ahmad Nazri Abdullah, Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee, Datuk Hishamuddin Aun, Datuk Manja Ismail, Datuk PC Shivadas, Datuk Ahmad A. Talib, Datuk Syed Nadzri Syed Harun, Datuk VK Chin, Datuk Ng Poh Tip, Datuk Wong Sulong;
RTM's Datuk Ibrahim Yahaya (director-general of Broadcasting, Ministry of Information), and most famously Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin who rose to become Information Minister.
The list above is far from exhaustive as Chinese newspaper editors have been omitted because I'm unable to render their names correctly in Romanized spelling. Najib Razak's press secretary, former NST reporter Tengku Sarifuddin Tengku Ahmad, is a Datuk too.
Something new
After Barisan Nasional was shaken and stirred by Pakatan Rakyat's stunning gains in the last general election, the old guard and Old Media took to cyberspace which was previously an Opposition frontier.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi acknowledged the influence of blogs in his March 8-tsunami postmortem. So it's hardly surprising that present Information Minister Rais Yatim is using both the carrot and stick to engage blogosphere.
On April 22, Rais threw a party for bloggers. It was truly a '1Malaysia' event because only one race was invited. Blogger Yusof Ahmad reporting on the dinner wrote, “I didn't see any non-Malay bloggers around??? at Restoran Seri Melayu where it was hosted.
The get-together was billed as one for the Minister to meet 50 of the country's most 'prominent’ socio-political bloggers. Anil Netto who did not get an invitation is presumably not prominent enough (though I beg to differ with the Info Ministry on this). Neither is Haris Ibrahim, similarly excluded from the guest list … in Haris' case, right skin colour but wrong political orientation perhaps.
Something borrowed
Rais in his dinner speech said, “There are certain rules and tactics for blogging which are a long part of our culture as Malays and Muslims???.
Is he hinting to us that in future when bloggers register with his Ministry – there have been noises that the government wants to regulate blogosphere – they will need to tick Malaysia's de rigueur 'Race' and 'Religion' boxes in the forms to be filled?
April 16. His third day on the job in Najib's cabinet, Rais talked about the importance of “only the right kind of information??? reaching Malaysians ... er, maybe only to be disseminated by state-approved right kind of bloggers, ya? [Day 1 at work, Rais spoke of possible legal action against errant bloggers; Day 2, monitoring and investigating any offending bloggers, and in the same vein, off and on ever since.)
From the clue given by Rais' selective invitation to his honour blogroll dinner, one might reasonably suppose that he would just as selectively persecute those deemed 'errant' and 'offending'.
Something blue
On Wednesday, the top online story in The Star was ''Porn king caught with pants down'. Yesterday, the paper's second top online story was 'Dancers who strip to lure more customers' and earlier in the week the top two were 'Cincai couples with illegitimate children' and 'Cop shoots 
woman in lovers’ spat'.
The all-time top click (i.e. most viewed) item in theSun online is its Miss Universe picture gallery.
This sensationalism in article selection shows what Malaysians read newspapers most popularly for. We might also infer that the fight to influence political opinion is instead taking place in New Media. Indeed Malaysia's Cyber Age prime minister has also put his best public-relations foot forward with his trilingual website 1malaysia.com.my.
You be the judge whether Najib is taking to Web 2.0 like a duck to water or like a fish out of water.
In his salad days as PM, he went on walkabouts in Jalan Masjid India, Batu Road, Little India Brickfields and Chinatown Chee Cheong Kai to rebrand himself as having the common touch. This 1malaysia.com.my video clip features his walkabout in Puduraya, KL, where he was practically insulated 
from the rakyat by his bunch of big bodyguards.
We may well ask if Najib is seen in the video clip as a man of the people or someone with OCD – obsessive compulsive disorder – from the way he incessantly stirs his drink when sitting at the warong? He looks bored and out of his element in the working-class surroundings [compare rock legend Bruce Springsteen's walk down the street in Copenhagen*].
The decision by his 1malaysia.com.my consultancy to upload the clip on YouTube as part of Najib's rebranding exercise reaching out the masses might have backfired. Internet technology is a tool to connect politicians to a virtual audience but thus far Najib and his administration (especially Rais the Communications Minister) have failed to connect with the aspirations of Malaysians.
Slick sloganeering and money poured to establish blogs and websites will avail little if the marketing doesn't catch. Ironically Dr Mahathir who launched his blog last May – and 'Chedet' is on its way to notching 20 million hits, all within the span of a year – is one of the most successful utilisers of the Net.
And it is he who has most authoritatively dented the credibility of Old Media.
Footnote:
* In a comment posted on this rare footage, one commentator tells us that Springsteen skipped a VIP arrangement during his Danish tour and instead took an impromptu walk. He met a busker, asked to borrow his guitar and gave a spontaneous street performance which was greeted with warm applause and appreciative whistles.
