Category: media

the plot thickens

a conspiracy theory has it that ces drilon unwittingly walked into a trap sprung to give the armed forces reasonto start another all-out-war in mindanao, win pogi points with gma who in turn wins pogi points with george w. bush, and, incidentally, discredit mayor alvarez isnaji who’s running for governor in the armm elections.

it would explain why the situation was resolved so quickly, without serious harm to ces and co. but i have a hard time wrapping my mind around such a theory mainly because it would have hinged on ces or some bigfish like her being dumb enough to make kagat the bait of an exclusive interview with a surrendering abu sayyaf. it would also mean that the orenas needn’t have come up with ransom money, as ces and co. would could have been released anyway in time for gma’s trip to mindanao. unless of course the idea was to harass ces’ kapamilya, abs-cbn, into coughing up the millions, pero the kapamilya balked, strictly adhering daw to the no-ransom policy, so that ces’ true pamilya had to raise the first five million. unless of course abs-cbn is the source of the two duffle bags of money that pnp chief razon knew nothing about daw?

and then again maybe abs-cbn was part of the conspiracy? this would explain whythe police, and maria ressa, stopped ces from answering questions at her first presscon in zamboanga, questions that were only for razon to answer daw?

will we ever know what really happened? will anc ever tell us what it knows? will we ever believe anc again?

oh, and dan mariano of manila times has one last question : who’s footing the bill for that ten-day suspense serial that had us all glued to radio and tv for the latest news?

Thousands of police and soldiers were mobilized for operations to secure the news team’s freedom. Manila-based officials broke off their regular schedules and flew to the far South to coordinate the operations. The government was not about to let itself be seen as complacent-even if the victims belong to a media organization hostile to the administration.

The massive movement of security personnel and equipment was done at great cost to the state. Who will foot the bill?

In countries with efficient rescue services, the parties that call for help are often required to pay for the cost of emergency response. This is one aspect of the 911 shows on television that is rarely mentioned. However, the logic is unassailable.

The upkeep for emergency response units comes from public funds, which in turn are sourced from taxpayers’ money. The cost of deploying those units should therefore be borne by those who directly benefit from them-unless, of course, they are indigent. However, a network like ABS-CBN can hardly be described as needy.

indeed. tinataga tayo ng lopezes sa koryente, karma-karma lang kung sila naman ngayon ang tagain for the operations that resulted in the release of their star correspondent. they can always make bawi by making a documentary that will tell all, and i mean ALL, in the spirit of the public’s right to know, na mantra ni maria ressa once upon a time not too long ago.

challenge of the blogs

must read: talk about kettles calling the pots black by dean jorge bocobo, where he takes on media guru luis teodoro, who deserves it for not finding anything good to say about blogs except that they pose a challenge to mainstream media, and who therefore advises journalists to:

. . . go into blogging to set examples . . . the principles of journalism should apply.”

ateneo communications professor chay hofilena agrees:

There should be verification and fairness even if it’s an opinion piece. There should be an effort to get the other side no matter how little the space you allot.”

ahahaha. what do they think they’re doing? they want to change the blogosphere, that’s what. they want bloggers writing like their mga alaga, i suppose, who only report both sides of a story, and who do not feel too strongly or care deeply enough about issues (for lack of reading and research?) as to make the mistake of pushing an opinion or taking a stand, oh no, that’s a no-no.

but that’s precisely what’s so great and radical about blogging – the unlimited space for opinions and ideas that are not welcome in mainstream media because, as bocobo tells us in no uncertain words:

Next to the government itself, of which the Main Stream Media are virtually a part, I cannot think of a more corruption-ridden, unethical, unprofessional, disingenuous and commerce-driven bunch than the Philippines Main Stream Media. Hiding behind veils of objectivity to hide prejudice, ideology, selfish agendas and vested interests, using innuendo, libelous and scurrilous attacks, whilst piously defending press freedom, what right do these kettles have to call the pots black and then to charge for it.

“Hahaha! At least when the bloggers use these same tactics they aren’t hypocrites about it and expect everyone else to bow down before their “codes of professional ethics”–which in our Main Stream Media are followed more in the exception than in the rule.”

my advice to journalists who would-be political bloggers: plunge in, get the hang of it, get into the loop, persevere, but don’t expect special treatment. like bocobo says:

Bring your ethics. Bring your standards. Bring your professionalism. Bring your Mama! But what really matters here is whether your ideas can compete with others and win! Your bandwidth is my bandwidth. My Liberty is your Liberty. Leave your stupidities and inanities at the door, or bring them along and wallow with the rest of the warthogs (which is allowed!). Here we are equals, and you’ve just come to the party a little late. Now, there’s a place at the table for everyone, but don’t expect a high place and automatic respect just coz you’re so used to one way conversations and call yourself some fancy name that really means nothing to most of us.”

what if, instead of trying to change the blogosphere teodoro found ways to raise the bar for journalism, raise the level of thinking and analysis through reading lists and interdisciplinary crash courses on history, politics, economics, environment, world trade and the like.

instead of putting down blogs, which is so crabmentality, yuck, traditional media should be upgrading and rising to the challenge of the blogs.

blogwise

when i first started blogging in september 2007 – thanks to joel who wouldn’t stop telling me i should and who managed to patiently guide me long-distance through the internet – i had been surfing seriously for a year, mostly for news and opinion, local and foreign, the better to understand, have a sense, of what’s really going on ba here and abroad.

all that googling of course led me to the pinoy blogosphere, the political blogs in particular, and i thought it was great, the freedom of expression, the freewheeling exchange of ideas, and the option of every reader to comment and be published in the blink of an eye. instant gratification, what joy all around. i could see myself thoroughly enjoying it, puwedeng pag-trip-an, ‘ika nga. my concern was, i would be taking away from time spent finishing two book projects na gumagalaw naman pero ubod nang bagal.

well. as it turns out, i’m managing to blog AND to continue writing one of the books. better yet, the blogging is good exercise, which must be why the book is really moving now, slowly but surely, the writing almost easy. best of all, blogging keeps me sharp, keeps my braincells alive as i try to take in and make sense of diverse schools, and levels, of thought, from the wonderfully sublime to the really really arrogant and really really crass.

but i wouldn’t go so far as to proclaim the internet and blogs as the new media. “a new media,” perhaps. it is hardly a threat to mainstream media, considering that access to the internet is limited to a small educated-and-wired sector of our mostly poor population. newspapers and magazines and radio and television reach a more diverse public, which is as it should be.

the malu-gma connect

malu-bigfoot-in-her-mouth-fernandez strikes again, this time dissing bloggers (slacker’s job daw, unless you get paid for it, how mercenary) who crucified her once for dissing ofws, and all in a sophomoric kind of bad writing that’s full of herself and her perfumed hot-air existence. to top it all, she has the gall to call herself a journalist. omg, i swear, professional pinoy journalists should raise a stink. there ought to be a law barring the likes of this woman from thinking herself in the pro league, and naming herself to the pro league. she gives philippine journalism a bad name.

and of course, being the aunt of the gma cohort (supposedly senator) migs zubiri (whose mom is her sister), the tacky bitch just had to weigh in on a bloggers’ campaign to unseat the lucky bitch:

It’s just like all this hullabaloo about ousting GMA. You deposed ERAP in Edsa Dos. Now you’re unhappy with his replacement. Make up your minds. (For the record I’m not pro anybody I’m pro whatever lesser evil is out there). You can’t overthrow one president then decide you made a mistake with your second choice. I’s not like buying a green Hermes bag and suddenly deciding, oops I should have gotten the black one instead. Unfortunately that’s the kind of nation we have become, a bunch of wishy-washy whiners who whine about everything under the sun and found the blog sphere to be the new medium for whining. Yes we do what we have to do as a nation to get things done and stop corruption and evil (I’m all for that) but we never seem to be happy with what we have, hence the complaining and whining. It just never stops.”

grabe. if i were the supposed senator zubiri, i would cringe in shame at being associated with such drivel.