It has been a busy few weeks for members of Philippine media. Their love affair with incoming President Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte seems to have ended abruptly. Some members of local and even foreign media have called on their colleagues to boycott covering Duterte until he apologises for his remarks about media killings. Apparently, some have interpreted what he said about media killings as “condoning” the murder of journalists. Of course asking Duterte to apologise is basically asking him to tell you to go to hell. True enough, calls to boycott him backfired. Duterte said he doesn’t really care if journalists boycott him.
Those who called for boycotting Duterte didn’t think things through. They have no choice but to cover the activities of the office of the President so they obviously aren’t going to win this power struggle. Not covering Duterte will be their loss, not his.
Duterte’s nightly press conferences in Davao City, where he prefers to stay instead of Manila, had become some kind of one-man show featuring the President-elect. Duterte loves going on these long monologues on topics he is passionate about. So when a journalist asked him about media killings, he had a lot to say. He enumerated three kinds of journalists. Before that, the first thing he said was, a lot of the murdered journalists were corrupt:
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Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch…
and
Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong…
and
That can’t be just freedom of speech. The constitution can no longer help you if you disrespect a person…
According to Duterte, the three kinds of journalists in the Philippines are: the crusaders – these journalists tell the truth, baring it all before the public. They seldom die because they are respected by the community. Then there are the mouthpieces of vested interests. They act as agents who defend businesses and enterprises. And lastly, the third kind are the vultures of journalism. These are the ones who extort from politicians and businessmen in exchange for keeping quiet about certain damning information. Some of them also engage in publishing malicious information against their sponsors’ rivals. We’ve seen a lot of those so-called “investigative” journalists in the last three decades especially during President Benigno Simeon Aquino’s term.
This is not the first time I’ve heard about corrupt journalists. I don’t even know why some in the industry were outraged because, surely, they themselves know of “journalists” who do it for the love of money, not for the love of the truth. The first time someone told me journalists who get killed are corrupt, I was shocked at the thought of how someone could easily dismiss the killings. The second and third time I heard it, my reaction was like “Okay, it seems journalists in the Philippines have a really bad reputation”. It’s either that or the value of life is not really that high in the Philippines. Either way, the situation for Filipino media people isn’t too good. Members of Philippine media should accept the fact that they have a bad reputation. The public doesn’t see the industry as bastion of integrity & honesty. To fix this, they should start policing one another.
The problem with some of the members of Philippine media is they engage in partisan politics. They put colour in the news. This was evident prior to the 2010 Presidential Elections when then candidate BS Aquino quite often occupied the front pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer compared to his rivals. They helped condition the minds of the public that he was popular. Their alliances with the Aquinos were too obvious for some people to ignore. Other media outlets like ABS-CBN also have a reputation for being allied with the Liberal Party. The TV network even featured the life and times of then Vice Presidential candidate Leni Robredo in their popular show Maalaala mo kaya even before the official campaign period started.
The Inquirer was also first to headline controversies involving BS Aquino’s rivals like the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona, outgoing Vice President Jejomar Binay and former President Gloria Arroyo. But they hardly reported on news about allegations of corruption involving BS Aquino’s allies like Budget Secretary Butch Abad and former Cabinet Secretary and losing Presidential candidate Mar Roxas. Likewise, The Inquirer didn’t seem to bother digging deeper into allegations of electoral fraud in the recent Presidential Elections, which some are alleging to have resulted in Senator Bongbong Marcos being cheated out of the Vice Presidency. The only publications that gave in-depth analysis about the electoral fraud are The Manila Times and The Standard.
“A wieldy partisan press helped Filipino politicians to flood the market place of ideas with junk” – Lee Kuan Yew
After the EDSA people power “revolution”, Philippine media promoted wholesale mediocrity. They were not interested in reporting the failures of the housewife who replaced the so-called “dictator”. Former President Cory Aquino got away with condoning corruption of the people allied with her. Even a letter written by her former Vice President Salvador Laurel expressing his disillusionment with the icon of democracy wasn’t highlighted by the media. They weren’t interested in exposing the truth because they probably didn’t want to taint the image of Cory as the “hero” of EDSA. Some excerpts from his letter are worth republishing here:
“But the true state of the nation must be told. And the painful truth is that the nation has gone from bad to worse, while you choose to stand aside in the puerile hope that the problems would simply solve themselves. The ‘new moral order’ to which we were solemnly committed has been perverted. It has become a haven for assassins and a den of thieves. Corruption, betrayal of the public trust and other high crimes have been laid at your door, including a complaint for impeachment, which your chief ally in Congress has already consigned to the archives.
“We promised our people morality and decency in government. What do we have instead? The very opposite. It is now openly admitted by many, including your former Solicitor-General and some of your own close relatives in Congress, that the stench of “accumulated garbage”—I’m quoting your own first cousin, Congressman Emigdio Tanjuatco, Jr. —rises to high heaven; that the past years of Marcos are now beginning to look no worse than your first two years in office. And the reported controversies and scandals involving your closest relatives have become the object of our people’s outrage.
If only the Philippine media did not play partisan politics, the Filipino people would know the true state of the nation under the Aquinos and their allies. For thirty years, the public was duped into thinking that only former Ferdinand Marcos was the reason why the Philippines could not progress. Indeed, the Philippine media is responsible for the dumbing down of Philippine society in the last three decades especially with their moronic television programs.
President-elect Duterte is right in calling out the hypocrisy of Philippine media. It’s about time someone stood up to them. The public will benefit from Duterte not being beholden to members of the media. Frankly, some of them are acting like a bunch of crybabies. Instead of acting like victims, journalists should help investigate the murders of their colleagues. It is sad that journalists get murdered, but a lot of ordinary Filipinos get murdered every day without being reported by the media. Every murder in the Philippines should be treated by the authorities with equal attention.
I do not understand why some people are shocked by Duterte’s no-holds-barred speech. He has been talking the way he does even before announcing his candidacy and during the campaign period. Some members of the media simply need to act less emo and continue to cover real news instead of being part of the news.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
Here’s one evidence that Philippine media is indeed really a huge BS!!! Just click a link below coming from Senyora Santibanez’ twitter account & posted this picture about a sports headline coming from a Philippine tabloid after the Golden State Warriors had won the Game 1 of 2016 NBA Finals, and the title of that headline would tell that it came from an idiotic editor from the said tabloid. Journalism, its more FCUK in the Philippines.
https://twitter.com/Senyora/status/738929075193057280
The Philippine Media is corrupted, like its Politicians. Journalists are employed by Media owners, who have vested interests. They have government contracts, and are beholden to who may be in power. This is the reason they will sanitize and twist the Truth; to satisfy their employers.
Most are just plainly mouth pieces of politicians. Aquino is an example.
Are you calling the same media who helped oust Marcos, Erap, and exposed GMA’s faults… entirely corrupt?
Duterte is simply scared of Manila’s media exposing his dirty killings in Davao. That’s why he discredits them. He wants the media to be good puppies like the ones in Davao, scared to say the truth.
The President already said before election he killed number of people. Why didn’t the media investigate? Simply, just like what Duterte said, media is corrupt.
@Dudirty:
Yes, they are all corrupt, and are in the payroll of the Aquinos. They sing “praises” to the Aquinos. However, they sanitized the corruption and evilness of Pnoy Aquino, and Cory Aquino.
There was no condemnation of the : PDAF, DAP, etc…and the Hacienda Luisita, Mendiola , Mamapasano massacres, etc…
The Aquinos are Saints and heroes,while their opponents are all “son of bitches”…
Yep, how come you didn’t include nocorazon y no aqui and pnyoy in your list? Biased perhaps? It’s creepy because all these fucking corrupt papers are very partisan and thus lose their integrity.
As expected from a Yellow Zombie like yourself, you’re utterly clueless. 🙂
Here’s the thing: ABS-CBN was owned by the Lopez family and they are staunch allies with the Aquinos. It’s simple, really.
Take your FAGGOTRY to somewhere else, please.
These Yellow-loving fuckers will never get the ties between the Aquinos/Cojuangcos, the Lopezes, and the “Chekwa” (Chinoy) businesses that are raping the country. These dumbass Fliptards are so full of their “Pinoy Pride Chicken” that has been feed to them by the Yellow oligarchs.
call it synchronicity, but only just a short while ago I happened to be reading this article:
http://thefederalist.com/2016/06/02/cell-phones-cause-cancer-and-other-scientists-lies/#.V1L5f_tbSY8.facebook
and there was this quote:
The media is one of the least trusted institutions in American society (it’s currently at a historic low according to Gallup), and that’s for good reason. In a story last year on Americans’ waning trust of scientists, the Washington Post bemoaned that America “risks drifting into a new Age of Ignorance.” While there is a real case to be made for the dumbing down of the American mind, it behooves the scientific community to consider why trust in their work is following the same trajectory as trust in the media.’
were those journalists really corrupt? as duterte himself said, he paid off several journalists himself, but it wasn’t corruption, it was PR. so, it’s not corruption, it’s PR. unless, of course, it’s all hypocrisy on the part of duterte, and he’s a willing part of the corrupt practice he’s condemning. which makes him corrupt himself.
and further exploring what he said,are we to assume, at the risk of desecrating their memories, that the journalists who died in the ampatuan massacre were corrupt? duterte implies as much.
or maybe duterte is really just a morally corrupt individual who can’t tell right from wrong anymore, and his only solution to dissent is to kill the dissenter. so God help us all.
As a Yellowtard yourself, you unknowingly exposed your own hypocrisy for being a point misser.
Actually, the Philippine media is full of bias so they were corrupt as well (ABS-CBN, Inquirer, etc.)
And speaking of the Maguindanao Massacre, you’re taking things out of context. Actually, they made into the news because they were ‘journalists’. If they were just ‘ordinary people’, they will just shun it instead.
God help us all from idiots like yourself. Go figure.
[Corrected Version]
dutertescam,
If you are a Fliptard, like you and me, then you’re born corrupt. All of us Fliptards came from a corrupt society. No exception to that rule so we won’t pick and choose who is corrupt and who’s not. We just have to pick which candidates is the lesser of all evils.
Aeta
There is actually a difference between the two. Wow, if you cant understand the difference between PR and corruption, then maybe you shouldn’t be joining these kinds of debate…
The Philippine media has the habit of manipulating the general public into burying a person through the so called “trial by publicity.” Screw facts and evidences, the media says this guy is evil so naturally the masses will rally against him. CJ Corona, anyone?
They also purposely withhold or exaggerate information to manipulate the masses. Or distract you from the actual issues.
PR has more to do with one’s public image. My examples above can’t be dealt with by some PR moves because the media is deeply corrupted. Get the difference?
Replace “Duterte” with your ridiculous name, and you’ve got the definition of your stupidity, yellowtard.
We ought to put less importance on mainstream media. They think too highly of themselves. Nowadays, current events can be acquired almost anywhere and we simply do not need a media outlet who only publishes what part they want and interpret it for you. I mean I am overseas and the Ph news available on TV for me comes from ABS CBN and GMA, and most of the time I end up restraining myself from throwing my shoe to the TV. Nakakapag-init ng ulo!
Yea.. Sometimes i’d rather scan twitter for hundreds of testaments of people who actually witnessed a specific event. At least on twitter, you can read both sides of the story.
The mercenaries and parasites of the Press, who prostitute its more than royal power, and dishonor a noble profession, will find it easy to mock at things too wonderful for them to understand; for to them the price of a paragraph is more than the value of sincerity.
“A wieldy partisan press helped Filipino politicians to flood the market place of ideas with junk” – Lee Kuan Yew
I just read this Chapter: Managing the Media from his 3rd to 1st book.
“The Philippines had a rambunctious press but it did not check corruption. Individual press reporters could be bought, as could many judges.”
From the chapter “Building Ties with Thailand, the Philippines, and Brunei” in the same book.
Ilda, I still remember your comments/article about the longing for a media mogul who may counter the decay brought by the oligarchs.
Funny that about a decade later, Digong is now at the helm and he is doing this dismantling of perception….
A fact is, many media outlets are owned by businessmen and people in government. It’s like the Lopez-owned Manila Chronicle and other media outlets back then – media were their tools to influence the opinion of people. The same thing operates today. We really need a media outlet that is “out of everything.” Not part of the pattern described above. For now, though it is proving to be difficult.
WHAT WE NEED IS A FREEDOM FROM PAID MEDIA NOT REALLY THAT OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. PAID MEDIA IS THE REAL MAJOR SOURCE OF SYSTEMATIC FAKE NEWS…
CHURNALISM and PRESSTTUTION. These are the 2 words surrounding components of the Philippine Mainstream Media.