Presidents, gynaecologists, and columnists all have one golden rule that links them: Do not use the power vested in you for mischief. Resist the urge, no matter how great it is, and stick to your job. Journalism, unfortunately, isn't a trade that often inspires fondness or recognition. Despite being a noble profession -- I'm not a trained journalist, and I hope I do not offend my elders and betters who received proper training on all matters Guttenberg -- they are often held up to sloppy criticism by people who do not know the business end of a subjunctive verb.

It has been said that journalists write the first draft of history, sometimes without the benefit of hindsight, and often that leaves them exposed to later criticism as being myopic, or as not having seen the bigger picture.

I write this because a very prominent columnist once adjudged that William Ruto would never get sacked, yet before the end of the day the minister's car no longer cruised under the colours of The Shield and Spears. Rent-a-gob commentary jumped on this to chide the columnist.

An invaluable job

It requires a level of research, a quality of execution, learned erudition, and painstaking analysis, most of which, sadly, are lacking in my pieces. Yes, these people do an invaluable job for the society.

Which got me to the talking point of this article: blogging. (But, before we get to the subject matter, I find that a loquacious clearing of the throat is in order, a sort of playful preamble, a flattering foreplay before the real business of the day.)

Let me start by asking what, in heaven's name, is a "citizen journalist"? And please note that "citizen journalist" is different from "Citizen Journalists" in that the latter cannot use a spell-checker.

"Citizen journalist" sounds zeitgeisty and selfless, but it does make the wrong assumption that journalism can be done by anyone. Why would you want a citizen journalist? No one, for example, wants a "citizen pilot", and the last time a citizen pilot took over a cockpit, they ended up attempting to land the plane on the 21st floor of a 34-storey building.

In the same altruistic spirit of Citizen Journalism, I would also like to offer my services as a Citizen Gynaecologist. I am only accepting patients between 18 and 25, mind you, and a passport size photograph will be required before appointment is confirmed, thank you. Citizen Journalism is derisive, and, I feel, cheapens the value of journalism. Journalism is a profession, not a hobby. Leave it to the professionals.

Veil of anonymity Onwards and downwards to blogging. It used to be the future, wasn't it? Blue skies and green fields thinking, wasn't it? We marvelled about how, together, we shall merge our energies, keep vigilant, and hold power to account, one blog at a time.

By "blogs", I'm talking about those individual posts, not the coalesced sites by professionals or journalists you have around. I'm talking about the ones which are hidden under the veil of anonymity. Since they cower in the crevices of a web that permits facelessness, they know nothing about libel, and thus descend into crude name-calling and malicious slander.

Among these are the most effluvial posts, filled with a combustible mix of egotism and ignorance. Let me say that some Kenyan blogs -- like Potashke -- are good (bad example. Potashke is rarely updated, but you get the drift), but majority are knuckle-dragging, mindless, pointless doggerel, and the comments in them are cretinously infantile.

Read what is touted as Kenya's best entertainment blog and you will see what I'm talking about. Some things are nothing but vain shoutings into cyberspace -- as you wonder whether really there is somebody at the other end.

Political blogs usually have less balance than a newborn calf and are filled with unsubstantiated rumours. They seem to serve misogyny for breakfast and tribalism for lunch, and ignorance all day long.

Blogs, with their links and inter-connectivity, are parasitic and karaoke-ish; recycling news, serving as broadcast echo chambers, and rarely generating original content beyond spurious allegations masquerading as analysis. Blogs are best used to provide link-ups to other more reputable news sites, places where writers do not hide behind a veil of anonymity.

Twitter, described as a micro-blogging site, can, however, be very useful at sourcing information. (I know I may have said Twitter is for twits in a previous article, but, in defence, I have to explain that I joined it for purposes of research for this column, Twit).

The sad thing about Twitter is that what it can do is more impressive than what it usually does. It is capable of great feats -- such as serving as a message-board for a revolutionary movement against an oppressive government -- yet most of the time has people concocting such flippant minigames such as "what if WikiLeaks was Kenyan?"

It is also filled with chancers and amateurs whose job, it seems, is it to constantly act as conduits for retweeting anecdotes from wittier people. On Facebook, nothing is too painful, personal, or private to be kept in the confines of your head. The site is raising a generation for whom the word "stoic" refers to the philosophy of Zeno, not the virtue of patient and impassive endurance.