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Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Part 2: How media corruption shortchanges the public

December 3, 2012

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Exclusive by Raïssa Robles

When information that you obtain from mass media like newspapers, radio or TV is slanted a certain way because a politician or a company gave money to make it come out that way, then the public is shortchanged.

Democracy is distorted.

The way it’s supposed to work is that in a democracy, the mass media help the public make sense of what American psychologist William James called this “blooming, buzzing confusion” that is our world.

Before Twitter and Facebook and blogs came along, many Filipinos tracked events in the Philippines through newspapers, TV and radio.

The role of a reporter is to sense changes in what’s happening from day to day and year to year, to notice trends and to report these as accurately as possible. Newspapers, filled with such reports, serve as guides to the public by highlighting what’s important in the placement of the story on the page and the size of the head or title. The most important story — in the judgment of the newspaper’s editors – is always placed above the fold.

When a reporter or editor succumbs to a bribe or when a newspaper starts selling editorial space to hawk a product or a person, then this sabotages the entire concept of what a newspaper is about. The reading public is misled into thinking that something is very important – when in truth it is not. It just looks important because someone paid for it to be so.

The same thing happens when radio and TV sell airtime in such a way that the public is made to think it is listening to news and not to a political advertisement.

When media misleads

Let me illustrate with examples. In Chay Florentino-Hofileña’s book, “News for Sale: The Corruption & Commercialization of the Philippine Media”, she noted the very disturbing trend of radio and TV networks offering multi-million pesos “commercial packages” to political candidates in the 1998, 2001 and 2004 presidential polls.

For instance, Chay quoted veteran ad executive Yolanda Ong as saying that a P20 million package offered to the late presidential candidate Raul Roco by a radio network in the 2004 polls would have provided him not only radio ads but also thrown in three weekly interviews, favorable spot reports and a reporter “embedded” in his campaign. Chay quoted Ong as saying she rejected the deal.

But what’s wrong with that? A radio network is after all a commercial venture and has to earn to remain viable.

The radio ads are not a problem but the add-ons like the embedded reporter and interviews with soft-ball questions are problematic because they blur the distinction between advertising and news reporting.

Such arrangements also place less moneyed candidates at a gross disadvantage. Candidates who may be better-qualified but who don’t have as much money would have less chances of being heard by the public. And that does the voting public a disservice.

In addition, reporters could also be discouraged from digging too deep into the backgrounds of political candidates who have contracted such commercial arrangements with the newspapers, radio and TV networks they work for.

Can the Commission on Elections require both mass media and political candidates to make disclosures of such commercial arrangements as they happen and not wait for months after the elections?

Consumers of news are entitled to know whether they are listening to news or to paid political propaganda.

Another trend that Chay noted was the oftentimes secret commercial contracting of entertainment and lifestyle reporters as well as columnists in order to write favorably about certain political candidates.

We have no law banning such arrangements. But they are highly unethical. The least that contracted reporters can do is to disclose such arrangements. And is this covered by VAT? I wonder. Because every writing assignment I do with local media is covered by VAT.

There is also no law against celebrities endorsing political candidates. But they ought to disclose to their fans how much they were paid for it; if they are doing it out of personal conviction or if it is a purely commercial transaction.

Profiles and features on candidates, their spouses or children are sometimes assigned to reporters without the latter knowing that this is part of the advertising package that a candidate arranged with a newspaper or TV network. I think reporters have the right to know this and should have no restrictions on what pertinent information they can truthfully unearth and report about the candidate . Rival candidates ought to get the same space and treatment so the public can be informed as well about them.

Whenever I write about a candidate I make sure to also find out everything I can about him, especially those parts of his life he has been trying to downplay or conceal – a mistress, ill-gotten wealth, a vice or a previous questionable transaction.

In this connection, let me mention to you an interesting thing about the campaign of Congressman Jack Enrile for senator. He actually began campaigning a year ago last November when he met with some prominent women in media. It’s good that Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Rina Jimenez-David wrote about the ladies’ luncheon with Enrile. You can read about Enrile’s early wooing of the media by clicking here.

Jack Enrile’s handlers must have told him – don’t deny your shady past but blame it on youthful excesses and say you are now a reformed husband, father and grandfather. By next year, his camp can simply shrug off the same issues as “old hat” and refuse to entertain questions on the matter any further.

I wonder if this tactic will work for Jack Enrile and if media men will have the guts to keep asking Enrile about it and digging up more facts about it.

If you see stories on Enrile and the other senatorial candidates between now and the May elections – especially in the newspapers’ lifestyle and entertainment sections and on magazine covers – please take the time to analyze the stories and see whether these praise the subjects too much. Examine the adjectives used to describe the candidates. See whether the stories give a balanced and fair view of the subjects.

I’m not saying that if such stories come out in these venues you could assume they are paid for. What I’m saying is that politicians will naturally be targeting these venues. It will be a testament to the skill of the editors and writers to portray candidates in such a way that readers gain real insight into their character, and not just publish articles showing off the candidates’ beautiful homes, their possessions, pictures of their families, their dogs or gardens.

Writing about celebrities is very much a part of journalism. Personally, I like reading the in-depth stories of “Yes” magazine, whose editor-in-chief is veteran journalist Jo-Ann Maglipon and whose executive editor is long-time journalist-poet-screenwriter Pete Lacaba.

What do you do when you spot a story in the media that’s worded like a “praise release” for a candidate?

Before the 2010 presidential polls, there was nothing much that ordinary consumers of news could do about propaganda foisted as news on the public.

But now, with the rise of social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs, you and I can actually have our say on this matter.

Remember it was the netizens in social networking sites who first spotted Senator Vicente Sotto’s plagiarism. And kept spotting it again and again. That encounter with social media flustered Sotto so much he made the additional mistake of revealing the impending Cybercrime Bill, tipping off the public to that outrageous law’s existence

That was merely the initial flexing of netizens’ muscles.

I can hardly wait to see what role the Internet and social media will play in next year’s elections. Will they add to confusion or help bring the voice of the public to the field of mass media?

I foresee people on Facebook and Twitter and commenters on this site looking out for media men and women who have secretly hired out their services to politicians. And of course, there’ll be shady operators on the Internet who will offer their services and media packages to political candidates.

_____________________________________

Related Story

Part 1: A painful topic – media corruption 

Tagged With: "News for Sale: The Corruption & Commercialization of the Philippine Media", Chay Florentino-Hofileña's book, Philippine media corruption

Comments

  1. Mel says

    January 22, 2013 at 7:17 PM

    Learning from the Americans.

    Abby Martin takes a look at America’s history of government infiltration in news media, from the CIA’s 1950s secret cold-war program, dubbed ‘Operation Mockingbird’, through to paid Pentagon online trolls today.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQl9H-gi9NE&feature=player_embedded

    • Mel says

      January 22, 2013 at 7:18 PM

      Above source: http://www.sott.net/article/256730-CIA-media-infiltration-is-real-From-Operation-Mockingbird-to-Pentagon-social-media-trolls

  2. Mariano Renato Pacifico says

    January 9, 2013 at 4:56 AM

    Why Filipinos cannot tell distortion from daan-matuwid ? Because Filipinos cannot have the facility to know the difference because their only source of MISINFORMATION IS TFC CHANNELS !!!!! And Adarna comics !!!!

    • Mariano Renato Pacifico says

      January 9, 2013 at 4:57 AM

      Most of all THEY DO NOT GO TO LIBRARIES … they’d rather Facebook and pa-teks-teks …

  3. fcb328 says

    December 11, 2012 at 7:48 AM

    Ms. Raissa, now that you opened “a can of worms” (Corruption in the Philippine Media), is there a prevalent “code of silence” in the media community. It is prudent not to name names?
    Or Is this just an inherent gene is the filipino psyche-culture-attitude.
    Can’t the media police itself ? What percentage of the journalists in the Philippine Media are on the take and have integrity-credibility?

    • raissa says

      December 11, 2012 at 11:32 AM

      I don’t know the percentage that’s on the take.

      I suspect this rises and ebbs.

      The media can police itself if it wants to. The people can do the policing as well.

      • Jett Rink says

        December 13, 2012 at 12:33 AM

        do you believe anybody in the current malacanang press corp is on the take ?

        • raissa says

          December 20, 2012 at 6:15 PM

          I don’t know.

          You could be in the press corps and still be reporting on other things.

    • raissa says

      December 20, 2012 at 6:30 PM

      Yes, there is an informal code of silence – just like in other professions.

      I think it’s a human trait, and not just a Filipino trait.

      I don’t know the percentage of those on the take. The problem is, there are some prominent ones who give the entire profession a bad name.

  4. Mel says

    December 7, 2012 at 8:24 PM

    The President Who Told The TRUTH!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxNw8OhmVZE&feature=player_embedded

  5. Coco says

    December 7, 2012 at 8:14 PM

    Off topic.

    Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo believes Pablo is “God’s punishment” on Filipinos for even daring to contemplate passage of the RH bill.

    Is this the same God that let perish 2,000,000 Filipino fertilized eggs by lack of implantation yearly ? 500 Pablo deaths versus 2,000,000? Bishop, please enlighten me.

  6. Mel says

    December 7, 2012 at 8:06 PM

    When NO to fear, bribery and omissions were a rarity, and lock down to padlock was just the norm to stifle the Freedom of the Press some 30 years ago.

    NEVER FORGET | 30 years after the WE Forum raid, the Philippine press relishes a lesson on freedom

    By: Lourdes M. Fernandez,
    InterAksyon.com
    December 7, 2012 6:00 PM

    MANILA, Philippines – Shortly before noon on December 7, 1982, a team led by Col. Rolando Abadilla, then intelligence chief of the Metrocom, raided the offices of the WE Forum, the trailblazer of the “Mosquito Press” under martial law. The soldiers hauled off voluminous documents, padlocked the printing press and jailed WE Forum publisher-editor Jose G. Burgos Jr., his father Jose Sr., and several columnists and newspaper staffers.

    Two sites were actually raided in what is now simply refered to as the “WE Forum raid”. Both sites were in Quezon City: the home and office of Jose Sr. on No. 19, Road 3, Project 6; and the office and printing site that Jose Jr. leased at Units C and D, RMC Building, Quezon Avenue.

    It was a raid that drew condemnation all over the world, and exposed further the repressive nature of the Marcos regime. But it was also a seminal moment in the Philippine democracy movement, further emboldening a rising army of human rights defenders, and drawing a line behind which the opposition to Marcos – still under military rule – would not move back but only forward.
    …

    Read the rest of the commemorative piece at http://www.interaksyon.com/article/49895/never-forget–30-years-after-the-we-forum-raid-the-philippine-press-relishes-a-lesson-on-freedom

    • raissa says

      December 7, 2012 at 8:17 PM

      My father was one of the lawyers defending Burgos et al, along with lawyers Joker Arroyo, Rene Saguisag, Jejomar Binay and Martiniano Vivo.

      • Mel says

        December 7, 2012 at 8:30 PM

        I remember those days, I hold your father in good stead.

        I was grateful, I’m appreciative of your efforts through your blog today.

        Makes us all wonder what changes has befallen Joker Arroyo, R Saguisag (Erap’s impeachment lawyer), Jejomar Binay. Anu balita kay Martiniano Vivo?

        Good tidings…

  7. leona says

    December 7, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    Nahuli sila sa FB! No question the 4 had almost verbatim writings. Even their denials how it came about are likewise almost the same too! The link is

    http://www.newsbreak.com.ph/

    Mag ingat na kayo! hahaha…

  8. leona says

    December 7, 2012 at 1:13 PM

    Off topic…John MacAffee the creator of the anti-virus program in his name, after being denied in Guatemala for political asylum, suddenly got sick…chest pains! Somebody from this country must have called him up what to do! Who? The link

    http://news.yahoo.com/mcafee-hospitalized-being-denied-asylum-221742664.html

    • pinay710 says

      December 7, 2012 at 10:04 PM

      @mam/sir leona, mula’t sapul ang Pilipino ang nangongopya sa america, ngayon isang americano ang nangopya ng systema ng mga Pilipinong opisyal pagnahuhuli. ang kaibahan po nayan hindi MANUAL WHEELCHAIR ANG GAGAMITIN NI MCAFEE, MOTORIZED PO. saka nasa ibang bansa sya. heheheeh siguro po napanood nya kung paano nakawheel chair si gma at morato.

  9. docbebot says

    December 7, 2012 at 10:46 AM

    Just read at Interaksyon Alex Magno, former DBP director, charged by the Ombudsman.

  10. jeproks2002 says

    December 7, 2012 at 9:50 AM

    Media corruption is worst when others in media turn a blind eye to what their corrupt colleagues are doing. A sin of omission if you will. I am glad Ms. Raissa has raised this issue when others would rather brush it off. I have yet to hear or read any comment by the four columnists regarding their curiously similar “writing styles”. Perhaps they think this is not a big deal and hope this thing will just go away.

    The Maguindanao massacre is condemnable and must not happen again. This is a sensitive matter but I have to ask. I find it curious why so many media people were there. Could they have been paid too? If so, how much? Is this payment to cover a media event an accepted practice? I know lawyers and their legal teams are paid for their legal services during elections. Are media practitioners paid fees also by the candidates to report?

    • Johnny Lin says

      December 7, 2012 at 10:14 AM

      Those 4 are all corrupt, bet the house on that.

      Silence is golden!
      Before everybody was in the mood to talk. Suddenly everyone has sealed lips.
      1. Arroyos
      2. Media- 4 columnists
      3. Genuino and Soriano
      4. Morato and PCSO officials
      5. Latest is PSC comission-er Alfredo Po who was entrapped recently with bribery by NBI

      He he he

    • Aurora pascua says

      December 9, 2012 at 1:11 AM

      Very good and straight to the point of questioning the media ? Why ?

« Older Comments
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist Then they came fof the Trade Unionists, and I did not out speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me— And there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

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