Following up on John Mangun’s editorial the other day about how journalists in the practice of their profession have forgotten the basic tenets or disregarded the same…
Journalism has deteriorated to the point that it is often unrecognizable from propaganda and disinformation.
Investigative journalism used to start with “Let’s see where this leads us.” Currently, most “investigative journalists” start at the end and works backwards to “prove” a conclusion.
Consider then how the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has been anti-Duterte since his election to the Presidency. In his article “Duterte, not the pandemic, is biggest threat to PH journalists today” published there, ABS-CBN correspondent Christian Esguerra writes…
Yes, thousands of ABS-CBN employees lost their jobs in the middle of the pandemic, all thanks to Duterte, Cayetano, and company.
But there’s something much bigger at stake here. Duterte didn’t just take away jobs; he further tightened the noose on a free press that’s already gasping for air under his regime. The pandemic lockdown allowed him to do this because thousands of freedom-loving Filipinos, who would have otherwise taken to the streets, were confined to their homes. Given his administration’s well-oiled propaganda machine online, it became easier to deal with the public outrage.
The line of objectivity has been crossed and fair play is non-existent. If Duterte is really a wannabe dictator then he could’ve directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file sedition charges against these “journalists.”
But ABS-CBN continues to broadcast on other platforms where a franchise is not required. No less than the Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr, who is a former talent of the network, has confirmed that the franchise could’ve been renewed under friendly administrations such as that of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but the network didn’t follow his advise. The root of ABS-CBN’s problem is the beef which developed between Gabby Lopez and then President Aquino, who wanted the former to fire Noli De Castro and Ted Failon who had been criticizing him for the long periods he was not seen publicly. This was after another journalist coined the term “noynoying”, a euphemism for not doing anything. The bias of ABS-CBN against then candidate Duterte has since been clear. The network was banking on either a Mar Roxas or Grace Poe win at the polls which didn’t materialize. Aquino and Roxas made sure of that with the suffering the public experienced from their bad decisions.
The stunt pulled by reporter Chiara Zambrano the other day highlights the dangers of playing God with reportage.
There was no chase and Zambrano wasn’t aboard a fishing vessel. Why the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) allowed her access to the disputed area should be answered by the Secretary of National Defense. At a time when tensions in the area are running high, the last thing which should happen is the provocation of an incident which could be the spark of armed conflict.
Clearly the Opposition is very irresponsible because at a time when the country is dealing with the pandemic, it still puts its vested interest ahead of that of the public it is supposed to serve. In the service of the Filipino is nothing more than a lie.
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