For all the calls for a crackdown on “fake news”, it seems even the world’s most respected “journalists” just can’t seem to help partaking in a bit of the troll party where all of this orginates and gets passed around. Within the last 24 hours, two seemingly respected personalities in the mainstream industry of conventional news media were found issuing tweets that evidently draws dubious legitimacy from factoids passed around amongst the bottom-feeders in the underbelly of Philippine political commentary.
One is renowned essayist Sarah Kendzior who, in a tweet fielded on the 15th November, asserts that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a man who “orders the mass [murder] of his own citizens”.
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Another is BBC Southeast Asian correspondent John Head who, also in a tweet, suggest that the Philippine President is an abuser of the drug fentanyl.
Head is, as we recall, the guy who was on the receiving end of a tirade launched into by pro-government blogger Sass Rogando Sasot during a gala event hosted for delegates of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit held in Manila this year. Sasot was expressing her dismay over the interview of Duterte critic Jover Laurio by the BBC after she was outed as the personality behind the anti-government Pinoy Ako blog. Sasot reportedly took issue for not being invited for a similar interview and questions the BBC’s prioritisation of Laurio who, she claims, is just a “minor” social media personality in comparison to her (Sasot’s) stature in the Philippines’ social media community.
Many have expressed equal dismay over the behaviour of certain “Die-hard Duterte Supporters” (DDS) bloggers such as Sasot who seem to have become too enamored of their celebrity status having recently amassed large numbers of social media followers (many of whom exhibit disturbing herd behaviour, jumping to action at every directive of these bloggers). As such, the notion that mainstream media “journalists” are necessarily bad and bent on destroying the Duterte government as these DDS bloggers claim (and want their followers to believe) is being re-evaluated in some cliques that are known to support Duterte but apply more moderate or sober (read, non-“die hard”) critical faculties to maintaining this support.
Unfortunately, the unprofessional behaviour of key media figures such as Head and Kendzior themselves also make it difficult for their industry to rebuild its lost credibility and stature both of which already suffer an assault on two fronts: (1) erosion of its ascendancy as purveyors of “truth” thanks to the rise of “citizen journalism” facilitated by social media and (2) erosion of its financial viability thanks to an evaporating revenue base that can’t sustain an entrenched cost base of traditionally qualified and employed staff.
Both polar ends in this “war on truth” — mainstream media personalities whose personal brands are hinged on their employers’ brands and ultra-partisan bloggers who have pegged their credibility on one particular politician or political party — need to shape up. In this age of democratised mass communication, Internet brands are highly-volatile and can quickly evaporate and be as easily replaced as quickly as they rise in today’s highly-competitive free market of ideas.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
While it may be a li’l off in saying that Dueterte ‘…ordered the killing of his own citizens.’, it is not to much of a stretch. I’ll not scount the ‘net for the exact speech where Dueterte specifically stated that he ‘…..give a medal’ to anyone that KILLS a DRUG-DEALER, but HE DID SAY IT. and shortly thereafter the murder rate of Druggies sky-rocketed ! in an aside, its too bad that the murdering scumbags did not target the real drug-dealers i.e ‘High-Level’ Politicians and Prison Guards at Bilibid Prison, but they have body-guards and automatic weapons.
As for Trump not calling Duterte out on it, well what does anyone expect Trump to do? Trump is,afterall, a guest of the Philippines government at the time of the summit.Trump blasting Duterte at the time would be considered bad manners….and besides Trump is a businessman at heart and was in the country to do business, not look out for a few thousand druggies….
what bothers me the most about Dueterte and his ‘…give a medal’ speech is that HE NEVER GAVE OUT A SINGLE MEDAL TO ANYONE THAT HAD KILLED A DRUGGIE, so on that score I’d have to say the guy is a typical FULL OF SHIT FLIP…not more..
elitist butthurt, you are…
from imperial manila, you must be…
(~_~)
Oh look, an ad hominem. How cute.
“Trump is, after all, a guest of the Philippines government at the time of the summit.”
Trudeau was also a guest but it seems he made a remark about the EJKs. And then Duterte seemed to have made a remark that that was an insult. Excuse me, how can saying the truth be an insult?
Anyway, a summit like that is about closing business deals. So a few countries may have closed some kind of business deals. And other countries, well, they may have not.
What kind of moron writes this bullshit? Are you really that dumbfounded as to why people push those memes you label fake news? Duterte is the source of these memes – he has been on stage telling citizens to kill drug addicts, telling audiences about how he would often use more than the prescribed dosage of Fentanyl as he enjoyed the feeling.
This page complains about those telling Duterte to restrain his speech, then goes on to bitch about the results of Dutertes unrestrained speech. Pathetic.
With your comment alone, it seems you’re just grasping on straws here, especially on the Fentanyl stuff which you love to overrate. What’s pathetic is that you’re missing the point.
It’s funny that you fail to realize your own blunder, though. Enough with your Yellowtard bullshit.
First, Duterte has commented explicitly on his abuse of fentanyl on several occasions so I’m not sure what you’re calling into question. Second I’m merely commenting on one sentence of the blog post, which calls into question the legitimacy of the memes on which the journalists are commenting. So what is your basis for claiming that I have missed the point of the article, seems arrogance got the best of you.
It’s not arrogance or anything, dear. You sure love to overrate about his use of fentanyl when it was a prescribed drug unlike crystal meth/shabu. Nice strawman right there.
Of Course, your anti-Duterte stance makes yourself arrogant. Again, stop with your Yellowtard bullshit.
Look at their twitter timeline, majority of it are tirades against Trump, of course they’ll attack Duterte because anything that Trump likes or respect is evil in their eyes, regardless of truth. That is how garbage and biased the media and these so-called Truth seekers are. They’re following the narrative and they’ll stick to it regardless of the truth, and to them, the Philippines and President Duterte is a soft target to their idiotic “Activist Journalism” while they have their own dirty laundry, declining state of their countries and the West in general, but no, politics and ideology first before fixing their own problems, they’d rather give out examples to make people be happy of their own status quo of being a “Great Democracy”
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
it is the sad truth about our current journalism, the true purpose has been vanished. we should react in a manner that is partial and in the side of truth. we should think twice before expressing ourselves. we cannot blame people whose belief rely on a person or personality but the people who write article should be responsible enough to tell the true story. and people should accept it whether it hurts or not. the essence of journalism no longer exist in our system, mainstream media act according to what his/her employer told and this bloggers act according to what their followers want to hear. we need to change this and I still believe we can do it by continuously posting the 2 sides of the stories.
CNN and BBC, in the U.S. media arena, are purveyors of Fake News. CNN , here in the U.S. is anti Trump, and pro Democrats. CNN protected the Hilary Clinton and her cahoots, in their corruption.
Now, it is the “Battle of who gained most followers”. One side is arrayed for the Aquino Cojuangco political axis. The other side is arrayed for Pres. Duterte and his followers.
Let them pull each others’ hair; and see who will survive.
As for me, as an ordinary GRP Blogger, who has some small quantity of opinion. I am not bothered by who will read my blogs. If they agree with me – Thanks. If they don’t agree with me – Thanks. I will keep on blogging , anyway. No matter what the outcome.
dilaw kasi ang media, mga sira ulo lang nanonood ng balita
“Sasot… took issue for not being invited for a similar interview and questions the BBC’s prioritisation of Laurio who, she claims, is just a “minor” social media personality in comparison to her (Sasot’s) stature in the Philippines’ social media community.”
——————————-
I think, the issue there is, what about Jover Laurio being given such instantaneous and huge attention by such a prestigious global media establishment as BBC. What’s so newsworthy about her in the context of the world events that made her prime time news material, even worthy of special interview? It was not, I think, to say “I deserve attention more than her” per se, but only to point out that by all standards, the reason for picking Laurio out from the thousands of bloggers there are is, shall we say, very perplexing.
It is perplexing indeed, and we’ve been pointing out the perplexing nature surrounding the way stories are chosen and what positions are taken by mainstream media on a whole raft of issues that go beyond this Laurio vs Sassot circus.
Laurio is, quite evidently, not much of a writer nor puts any substance of consequence behind what she writes. So there is enough to be read in between the lines to comment about and add to the already huge body of work written about the obvious slant of mainstream media in favour of Western liberal views and then use that as context to infer from or speculate about motives surrounding the generous airtime accorded to Laurio.
On that, perhaps it is just the sheer experience and depth of our body of work that I apply to evaluating Sasot’s behaviour with rather clinical detachment – specially considering my own personal bias against emotional outbursts or general emotionalism for that matter.