The biggest takeaway from Karen Davila’s cringe-inspiring interview of Malacanang Spokesperson Salvador Panelo is not Panelo’s wearing dark glasses as “investigative journalist” Raissa Robles points out. Rather, it is Davila’s failure to respond intelligently when Panelo challenged her to back her assertion that ABS-CBN’s legal troubles constitute an “attack on press freedom”.
Interestingly enough, the topic of “press freedom” wouldn’t have come up in the interview to begin with had Davila not raised it herself. Indeed Davila ended up raising Rappler CEO Maria Ressa’s pet topic in apparent desperation as she ran out of arguments against Panelo to further her agenda to demonise the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
It is a shame that supposedly “veteran” television journalist Karen Davila would draw from the sophomoric arguments of Rappler and its disgraced CEO considering ABS-CBN fancies itself a national institution of a calibre Rappler is nowhere near achieving.
Perhaps it is time ABS CBN re-evaluate the personalities it trusts to carry around its billion-peso brand. Then again, what’s the point, right? ABS-CBN as we know it is toast anyway.
Webmaster of Get Real Philippines