Irresponsible Journalism

GMA has always brandished itself as station that practices responsible journalism. They defined this with three main points:

Balitang Walang Kinikilingan (No prejudice), Walang Pinoprotektahan (Protecting no one), Walang Kasinungalingan (Truthful), Serbisyong Totoo Lamang.

This is the company's editorial ethics in as far as fair journalism is concerned. And through the years they have more or less proven that they have been "fair" with their brand of news. I am skeptical though.

The difference is on perception

In my mind they launched this editorial tagline to underline the perceived difference of news reportage between ABS and GMA. ABS has long been accused of biased reportage. This came from previous incidents where ABS reporters have been caught in the middle of highly controversial and editorialized news stories. Remember stories linking Julius Babao to terrorism, or Korina being commissioned by certain drug house to go against other Glutha drug houses, or the network being pro or anti government. This even after their damage control efforts to ban their newscasters from endorsing products. Remember Mel Tiangco was fired by ABS for endorsing Tide.

Perception was key. Do people really think that their newscasters become biased for accepting endorsement contracts? Or is it because their newscasters should remain as ambiguous as possible? Remember, newscasters are not celebrities; they are news readers and editors/anchors. Where does credibility come from? From being ambiguous or from standing for your own belief?

News is Business

ABS is one of the more popular brand and company (the other would be Meralco) in the roster of companies owned by the Lopezes. And since ABS has business interests and stakes in other forms, it is very easy to assume that they can be using their own media to promote their interests. On the other hand the Jimenez's and the Gozon's do not have strong presence in other business investments.

There have been accusations in the past where people have accused ABS of using their network to manipulate public perception. We do not know if this is true or not, but it seems that it is somewhat to convenient to use your own network to promote your own business interests.

But news is business. Whoever sounds more credible at the end of it will likely get the bigger of the pie. Is it still about perception? Somehow, news programs that have more credibility will never get human interest. We will respond to news that we like to hear. That's why there's so much interest and hype on sensationalized news and like. That's why there are human interest stories in supposedly hard hitting news. News if taken as is is just 30minutes of bad news. Would you really want to listen to bad news for the next 30 minutes or so?

If you want people to watch you, you better put something interesting there. Otherwise you will get canceled no sooner than you expect. CNN may have the reputation of delivering news on the dot, but there are a bunch of news anchors there too who are red necks and not too bright. Some of them just cannot ask the right questions without the right script.

For me, news has to be delivered the way I want to hear it: pleasantly and yet moving. Empathetic anchoring works for me. Cold news reporting really turns me off. At the end of it, I want to hear news that's relevant to me, the way I want it.

In the morning while I dress up, I open my TV but put it on mute. Mute because I do not want to hear all that gory bad news in the morning. But if there's something interesting I'd turn on the volume.

Did ABS really use its own network and programs in defending their interest in Meralco? Did GMA use its own network and precious airtime when it decided to go against ABS and fire tirades against other network?

Only the Truth and Nothing But...

Of course. Why would you lie? I guess more important to mention here is that you need to get both sides of the story. Then expose it.

And the point is:

This morning on the way to work, the cab driver was listening to Arnold Clavio's radio program. The topic was about the rising cost of Meralco rates. Admittedly this news was silenced a few days after Winston Garcia flipped his wig. Then we didn't hear anything anymore.

This morning they brought the issue up again in light of the pending proposal of Napocor to increase their price. Blah-blah-blah. They made loose canon comments about Judai's informercial and Meralco's "greed". But what caught my beef was when Arnold Clavio gave irresponsible comments and incomplete information about electricity usage.

He questioned why his electric consumption during summer spikes significantly as compared to christmas when he never changed his electric consumption pattern/usage. He would spend as much time at home or at work during summer and during christmas, so how come? He pointed out that he asked the girl from the meralco counter why this was so and the girl answered because of his appliances. He dissed the point like it was such a brainless answer. He pointed out further that how can that be when he had the same pattern?

The answer may have been lacking but as a responsible journalist, that question seemed legitimate to ask and even investigate further. But instead he dissed it. He was quick to assume that something was wrong with the metering and charging of Meralco.

I am not engineer nor an inquisitive reporter, but I bothered to ask. I am supposing that he has cooling and warming appliances around his house, be it toasters, refrigerators, coolers or water dispensers. In principle, appliances require more energy when its hot so it could run efficiently. When the room is hottest, compressors work double time to suck the heat out of the room to cool down temperature. That makes the consumption go up. The same goes for refrigerators.

The thing is, a lot of people are listening to him and take his editorials seriously or worth considering. If he is not careful with his comments, people might believe him and follow his line of argument which is wrong. I believe that proper research should have been done before he gave that comment or allusion.

In any case, I think none of the local networks are clean when it comes to journalism. Some of the broadcasters are too pro-government or anti-government, or in this anti-ABS? I am really concerned that for a network that's supposed to be number one and is superior in claims, they are really defensive and agog to quash competition. Further, they do not practice what they preach.

This is not a paid spot. This is just my thought only.