The news that Maria Ressa, CEO of Philippine online “news” site Rappler, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee has been met with more disgust than kudos by Filipinos. Those who were disgusted could not fathom how someone who has been spreading fake news and is a convicted felon could manage to receive a supposedly prestigious international award.
Those who were congratulating Ressa claim that she “brought honour to the country”. However, that claim has baffled a lot of Filipinos as well because, firstly, Ressa is also an American citizen and doesn’t even speak Filipino well. Her critics say her loyalty does not lie in the Philippines. That’s not too farfetched considering she didn’t grow up in the country. In fact, Ressa is quite often out of the country on her many PR blitzes or promoting herself and her body of “work”.
Second, Filipinos who are proud of Maria Ressa for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize either do not understand why she received it or don’t care if she painted the Philippines in a negative light before the international community just to win accolades and awards. Ressa once claimed before a 60 Minutes interviewer that “the situation in Manila is far worse than any war zone that I’ve been in”. That was a big fat lie. The situation in Manila was never like a war zone. A foreign journalist by the name of Ted McDonnell was outraged by Ressa’s claim and tweeted that it was “unadulterated bullshit”. He said he has worked in the Philippines for five years and knows that it is safer than many places in the USA.
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Filipinos who do not feel outraged by what Maria Ressa said should have their own loyalties examined. How can they let her lie like that? As Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao wrote in his column, Ressa was never a war correspondent. It wasn’t like she was on the ground as the fighting was going on. So her claim of being in a war zone was a lie as well.
Ressa would like everyone to believe that she is God’s Gift to Journalism and that she is saving the country from being torn apart. In every interview she has had with foreign journalists, her claim is always the same -– that journalists in the Philippines are “under attack”. It’s a complete fabrication. The truth is, there are Filipino journalists who don’t even like her because she acts like she is so full of herself. One journalist admitted to me that she is not well-liked in the industry. She is not really one of them. I can believe that because she is practically a foreigner. She sees the Philippines through the eyes of an expat. Her stint in ABS-CBN as head of the news division prior to creating Rappler was not great. There was talk of a toxic environment when she was there. Let’s just say that her colleagues did not miss her after she left.
In an recent interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Ressa said the biggest problem in the Philippines is the spread of misinformation. But the biggest source of misinformation in the country is mainstream media. There are journalists who are allied with politicians who publish negative propaganda against rival politicians. This was evident when former President Noynoy Aquino was still campaigning for the Presidency and even more evident during his six-year term. Ressa’s Rappler was a constant source of propaganda against Aquino’s enemies. Rappler kept publishing article after article against Aquino’s perceived enemies like the late former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. As a matter of fact, it was an article published against Corona that got Ressa and her journalist in trouble with the law.
Ressa’s bias is very evident in the way she criticises current President Rodrigo Duterte. She is relentless in publishing inaccurate articles against him. It wasn’t the case with the previous President. She was kinder and handled Aquino with kids’ gloves. This was odd considering Aquino’s term was disastrous and resulted in thousands of deaths due to his bungling management style. The environment was even more dangerous for journalists during Aquino’s term. I have not heard of journalists being murdered under Duterte’s term. It was only right for National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose to say that Ressa does not deserve her Nobel Peace Prize. Democracy is alive and well in the Philippines and that’s no thanks to Ressa. No journalist is in jail or in trouble just for criticising Duterte. The only reason why Ressa is in trouble is because she broke the law on foreign media ownership and for publishing of libelous content against a private citizen.
It’s disappointing how many foreign journalists fell for Ressa’s exaggerated statements about the real situation in the Philippines. It just goes to show that they will believe anything a fellow foreigner like Ressa would say just because the Philippines is a Third World country. It’s also further proof that a lot of foreign journalists are elitist and do not respect the country’s sovereignty. They prefer to apply their own version of “democracy”. What they don’t realise is each country has its own nuances and capabilities as a society. It is not always black or white.
Maria Ressa’s supporters and those with a misguided sense of national pride are asking why people can’t be happy for her. It’s because she won it by being dishonest. She painted herself as a victim of “oppression” and “tyranny”. The truth is, she has used her publication to terrorise people she personally does not like. The Nobel Prize committee just gave her more ammunition to continue what she does best – to divide and destroy the national fabric of the Philippines. Her Nobel Peace Prize is a big sham, indeed.
In life, things are not always what they seem.
Maria Ressa is not a Filipino, and she did not win a Nobel Prize for being a Filipino. She got that prize for being an American, and being a tool of U.S.A. to spread blatant lies about the Philippines. Defending democracy and hate speech my foot. Their website has removed their comment section and their social media accounts block people who give dissenting opinions. I speak for the rest of the Filipinos when I say, “Fuck you Maria Ressa. Fuck you Rappler. Fuck you Nobel Peace Prize board.”
First off, we have to separate the chaff from the wheat; the outrageous from the conspicuous and the monstrous from beauteous.
The allegation of Maria Ressa “dividing and destroying the national fabric of the Philippines” is way, way out of field. To divide and destroy the national fabric of a country requires a horde of people willing to do bad things; an army of bad and conniving sycophants similar to what we have in political parties nowadays. She has no army, not even a rag tag one! She has no political party that can wage war and attrition against any incompetent administration. I would say the allegation falls on the fake news category.
Reporting facts, her job, do not divide nor destroy, it actually enlightens and exposes issues that people need or want to know. You may not like what she’s reporting or you may not believe her outputs but you don’t have to disparage it through distortion because it did not serve your interest.
‘Ressa is an American citizen and doesn’t speak Filipino.’
Another assertion without legs. According to her bio, she was born in Manila in 1963. When she was 10 when her mother took her and her sister to the US for good. Also, what’s citizenship got to do with reporting facts?
‘Ressa is bias against Pres. Duterte.’
Ressa interviewed Duterte a couple of times in the past. It happened in the 1980s when he was still a mayor and again in the 2015 presidential election. In both instances, we heard nothing from the Duterte camp about bias or unfair reporting. The assertion of unfairness only came up when the Rappler started to consistently become critical of Duterte’s policy on the war on drugs, in particular. It attracted international attention that embarrassed, not the country, the administration.
‘Ressa was kinder and handled Aquino with kids’ gloves.’
That’s a gross mischaracterization that I’ve ever seen in along time. I say that because it was Ressa who wrote a scathing report on the Wall Street Journal in 2010 against Pres. Noynoy about the Manila hostage crisis that killed eight Hong Kong nationals. And this is exactly the title of the story:
“Noynoy Flunks His First Test
The president’s bungled handling of a hostage crisis exposes his weak political leadership.”
Yup, that’s how kinder Ressa treated Noynoy.
‘Ressa did not win the Nobel Prize for being a Filipino.’
Err, nobody was saying that. That’s a claim that went to the moon and back! Lol!
As always we have to stick to the facts and avoid fiction. If you don’t do that you don’t win a Nobel. : )
Guess again. Maria Ressa has an army — her Rapplerettes — that I will have to agree with you is a “rag tag” one but an army nonetheless considering Filipinos’ inability to critically challenge what these girlettes spew. Her outfit also fits the mold of the party composed of “conniving sycophants” considering it is a part of global network of media outlets funded by a single oligarch.
Careful what you regard on the surface because there is lots going on underneath that only reveal themselves to people who apply a critical mind to what seems to be readily-evident.
Why don’t you leave the comfort of AUSTRALIA and return to the Philippines and start your OWN media company and report the facts truthfully and non-biasedly. I dare you to do it. But you won’t. You are just another internet troll with your own little GRP-army who attributes the wrongs in this country to a single political party.
Tanga. Nakalimutan mo na ba pinaggagawa mo kay Wilfredo Keng? Fact mo mukha mo bobo. Ulol ka talaga Maria Ressa a.k.a. Juan Luna. ?
Pawns don’t have to belong to the yellow party. It’s easier to manipulate people if they are divided amongst themselves.
“Reporting facts, her job, do not divide nor destroy”
And here lies the problem already (and blatant falsehood). The elephant in the room is still being ignored.
How can we trust Rappler to report facts when multiple times they have written falsehoods like the so-called terrorist in Resorts World (with a obviously made-up fictional and laughable name Al Luzonee, seriously?) when it was just a lone wolf ex-employee of the company. Also, the allegations against a private citizen where Maria Ressa was found guilty (beyond reasonable doubt) of cyberlibel. Also the so-callled foreigner that was allegedly abused in his house by a soldier by showing a cut version of a video online by Rappler but was found totally untrue saved by the full video taken by the soldier’s co-worker while the scuffle has ongoing. And oh, don’t get us started again with the obviously made up high numbers of supposed drug war deaths from their so-called sources of information but no full evidences of their bodies (should be in hospital morgues or cemeteries or be provided with death certificates at least) or even show all these numerous burials or “lamay” and even reporting on filed cases against the government through any willing lawyers that could help them.
Juan Luna, how can we take you seriously when you don’t even know what you’re talking about?
Good grief, your username doesn’t even suit you with your analytical mind that is found wanting.
You can do better than that… or don’t even try less we will just be disappointed again with you.
Every post I put up I try to focus on specifics as much as I can. I do that not only to avoid getting off topic but also to maintain the normal flow of the discourse.
To remind everyone, the title of the writeup is “Maria Ressa won her Nobel Peace Prize by being DISHONEST”. Notice the absence of “Rappler” there? On the other hand, I understand that Rappler and Ressa go hand in hand because the former was the creation of the latter. Even though not all the outputs of the website can be ascribed to Ressa, I still get the connection. If you happened to be a founder, editor, publisher, etc. of an article put up by your agency, surely, there would be implications there. I get it.
Now, this is the part where I bring it.
“How can we trust Rappler to report facts when multiple times they have written falsehoods…”
That line refers to Resort World incident wherein a hotel/casino was attacked by a lone gunman. It really happened and Rappler has a timeline report about it. If there is an inaccuracy committed, the detail of which is not clear, it is immaterial because it was reported correctly.
“Ressa was guilty of cyberlibel.”
This refers to the case involving CJ Corona having connection with a controversial businessmen (Wilfredo Keng). Ressa did not write the article but just the same she was implicated because she’s part of Rappler. The guilty part of the verdict is more complicated than what we normally know and we don’t have enough space for it here aside from being beyond our expertise to even indulge with it.
The foreigner abused by a soldier case, I don’t know. There’s no specifics as to the participation of Ressa. Again, if it’s Rappler, it could be Ressa.
About the high number of supposed drug war deaths, very clear, it’s an admission that there were deaths. The only “problem” was Rappler did not give the exact number of deaths. So, the problem is the number not the deaths itself.
So, what’s my verdict? Ressa wins! Rappler? We need a new writeup about it and we go from there.
Any of her apologists are unable to sustain alibis satisfactorily by making things obscure. People prefer clarity.
No amount of spinning can circumvent it—no matter how discreet Ma Ressa is or good at hiding behind the shadows & covering her tracks, she can’t stop the truth from coming out. Sooner or later, she has to own up.
But Ressa got the goods. No amount of spinning, sour-graping, bad-mouthing, disparagement and frothing in the mouth will change the fact that she got the Nobel Peace Prize, dude!
That’s obsolete thinking right there. People no longer need to rely on top-down channels to get their information off which they form opinions. They now have the option to consult other channels many of which are run by ordinary people. That’s the same crisis of relevance mainstream media face — people no longer need nor trust them.
Over time, the majority can remember movie celebrities or the latest gossip rather than the laureates. It may impress some people—especially the sheep. It won’t impress those who conduct their investigations independently or establish facts objectively based on better sources.
Painting oneself as an advocate of democracy & free press or a victim of political persecution to save oneself from embarrassment due to neglect in paying taxes on time or meeting essential financial obligations should not merit the award IMHO.
Sure, no one’s stopping anyone from gloating over their steal. The award does help pay the bills or maybe get better employment or impress some friends. Perhaps this gives them a sense of personal vindication.
But, there are stories of people who refused such an award. The Nobel committee is still a body of mere people not immune from deceit, political influence, or lapses in judgment. They do not always have access to bare facts but rely on their limited sources—connections. The inventor of dynamite established it to appease his conscience. The world would be a far better place if they knew how Peace works. Instead of working it out with them, trying to gain leverage over political opponents by making them an enemy of the West is not what genuine peacemakers do.
When ordinary people have gained access to both alternative sources of information and platforms to communicate with a mass audience, bodies that presume to continue to be authorities on the “truth” are progressively reduced in stature to quaint curiosities and the content they issue mere artefacts of verbose pomposity.
Don’t confuse love & respect for truth with “sour-graping” or anything else. But, I guess obscurity is really your thing. That’s simply the beauty of truth—It’s absolute! Man-made organizations are not. Even Yasser Arafat can’t take refuge in this same man-made award to hide a dark agenda.