After making an ass of themselves slandering the effort to prepare for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippine media have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves. To do this, they will need to prove that they are worthy of re-earning the public trust that they had lost. This means they need to work double time doing their jobs with integrity and with grace.
An interview of a participating athlete conducted by Gretchen Ho failed the grace test.
What they should stop doing, for starters, is making themselves the news — a distasteful habit ingrained in the industry ever since “social news network” Rappler put itself up as a dysfunctional role model for the industry. This sort of behaviour remains prevalent in a society groomed into believing “journalists” are some sort of hero figures. This is a relic of a notion leftover from a narrative that put up “press freedom” as the Messiah of a fledgling democratic “movement” amidst the “Martial Law Era” of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
Rather than be quiet achievers, we continue to see this self-important attitude exhibited by “reporters” such as “former CNN Philippines sports desk anchor” Francesca Litton* who tweeted this high five to members of her “profession”…
Shout out to all the members of the media multitasking through writing reports, shooting spiels and interviews, live updating on social media, time coding, editing, and everything that has to do with getting these awesome stories on athletes out there.
WE CAN DO THIS.??
I mean, really? How about you leave the back-patting to outsiders who can recognise your “contribution” to society from an objective lens, right?
This is an extension of the Selfie Generation that Millennials will likely go down in history as being referred to as. Indeed, the attitude is catchy and infectious.
To be fair, integrity is already a tall ask of Philippine Mainstream Media members on its own as is evident in the many instances that they had failed the Filipino people on this aspect alone. The idea of doing one’s job with grace, would therefore remain far beyond the grasp of the average kiddie “journalist”.
The news media industry is in bad need of adult supervision. Its leaders need to reflect and act quickly lest this “Fourth Estate” continue to flounder under pressure from a social media onslaught they can only pretend to “fight”. The future of this industry does not lie in a playground full of high-fiving kiddie “reporters” but on professional management captaining news organisations that have the courage to compete with grace through the application of innovative new ways of working.
———————-
*Addendum:
Ms Litton has since responded and I take her point that she had not asserted in her previous tweet that her statements were part of the news.
My apologies if it came off that way, nowhere in my post did I say we were the news.? It was meant to be words of encouragement for people who have been working round the clock and running to all the venues to get (accurate) stories on the games and athletes.
With that, I fully appreciate the grace with which she had conducted herself — a standard of conduct I — and, I hope, many others — aspire to hold myself to.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Saw that video yesterday and I was honestly wondering why Gretchen’s “tone” was like that when she was interviewing the Singaporean (I think) athlete. Whether or not that was network initiated or just her being in a bad mood (Traffic, weather, issues with press access etc) is something I wouldn’t be able to guess anyway so I’m just curious since she herself is an athlete.
Maybe she was expecting the same quality of reception in the past to be repeated here?
Don’t want to seem like I’m trying to divert attention to how the interview was done but I would expect those who cover these event to be fair. If it’s bad, then it is bad. If it is good, then good. Average if average.
Well, I would reserve judgement on the SEA Games until after it is done and the “investigations” are underway. Details will come out anyway, one way or the other.
– I am curious what happened to the coach who wasn’t there for breakfast who complained about kikiam? I’m almost certain this guy will be called to the investigation to clarify his “issue”.
– They most likely will get an official statement from the Singapore team as to whether or not their Muslim representatives were fed pork or not as reported by South China Morning Post.
– I forgot who the Halal Food representative is of the Philippines that spoke to the media, but if they weren’t consulted about maintaining the quality of Halal food, who was in charge that was assigned by Phisgoc.
– The issue with the Prince being fed something with peanuts (I think it was part of the curry mix), what happened there specifically? Was it a stock of curry that was served everyone or was it specifically prepared to cater to the allergies of the diners/athletes? Details remain unclear here.
– Spending issue, well, they can audit it (to the best of COA’s abilities) but it will most likely take years before anything comes of it as with all of COA’s audits that need to be done ASAP.
– The Cauldron design, was it really a scaled down version of Manosa’s Expo Pilipino 300m Spire back in 1997 with Detailed Engineering drawings for implementation in 1999? (this crossed my feed and don’t know the actual source)
Well here’s the story of a proposed Centennial Tower that should had been erected in Luneta Park in 1998 but it didn’t pursue of its construction due to its controversy [before Torre de Manila] & the costs itself are too expensive to build brought about the Asian Financial Crisis that crippled down our economy at that time:
http://www.interaksyon.com/rumor-cop/2019/11/25/157888/sea-games-cauldron-manosa-centennial-tower/
But thanks to the 30th Southeast Asian Games, that building design now become known as the Cauldron for that sporting event, so we should thank the PHISGOV for reviving that design made by the late National Artist for Architecture. And by the way, that person is also the same guy who’d designed the EDSA Shrine, 30 years ago and those Yellowtards had missed this point & I wonder how much that shire had built? P50 or 55 million as of the current cost?
The mainstream media in our country is corrupted by crooked politicians and political parties. They think themselves as the bearers of truth. On the other hand, they are the sources of : fake news, biased opinions , unfounded rumors, etc…Most of our mainstream media, are Anti Duterte, and side with any opposition group that are against Duterte.
Even in this SEA Games, they politicized everything. Of course, our politicians who are involved in the management of the SEA Games are corrupt and incompetent. However, we can wait to bring out all these issues after the SEA Games; and all of the foreign players have gone back to their countries..
In the meantime, let us all enjoy the games…see how our athletes perform …let us take a recess on all political issues !
Most of corporate journos are spoiled elites who try hard becoming a hero in their profession. Romanticizing every petty thing they do.
Yeah they sound like rich kids that was ignored a lot by their parents.