in the senate inquiry into media’s role in the aug. 23 hostage-taking, senate president juan ponce enrile was critical of maria ressa’s wall street journal article, Noynoy Flunks His First Test.
What prompted you to write such a critique … put on the line the quality of leadership of the newly elected president of the country? (and) At bottom issue is the collision of two interests: there’s the obligation to your audience and faithfulness to your calling, at the same time we are Filipinos with a country to serve. What if national interests are damaged by the performance of your duties? Where do you draw the line between serving your country’s national interest and serving your ethical and professional obligations as journalists? … need a certain amount of caution in the manner of disseminating information … in carefully calibrated language… (or something to this effect)
ressa’s response:
Freedom of speech is universal. There is no conflict of interest for journalists in or out of the Philippines. We do not write with intent of bringing anything down… hoping for better action from government…. (and) I merely laid out the facts … the way events played out … there really was failure of the chain of command… intention was to constructively criticize … facts unassailable… rescue attempt botched… levels of incompetence… political factionalism… negative light? … the farthest thing on my mind… (and) We have to make a distinction between the job of a public relations person vs the job of a journalist… (or something to this effect)
but but but even if it were true that ressa merely laid out facts, still she was selective about the facts she laid out — she said nothing on how media flunked, too, bakit nagmamalinis. and in fact, she went beyond laying out facts when she issued that judgment, the opinion, that the president flunked his first test, AND used it as TITLE, setting the unmistakably negative tone of the article. kasi pala, the solicited article was not for the news but for the opinion page. mary kissel, editorial board member of the wall street journal, said in a phone interview tuesday:
… what Ressa wrote “wasn’t a news story,” but was an article for the paper’s opinion pages where “you’re expected to have an opinion.”
and even if ressa were right, that noynoy flunked his first test, why why why rub it in for all the world to read and to recall, and, of all places, in the world’s most prestigious business paper where the trustworthiness of a country is assessed, ika nga ni enrile, starting with the quality of the leadership. why why why further shake global confidence in our country when that confidence is so badly shaken na. like c_at commented in ressa, media, flunk test:
Wallstreet Journal, the newspaper read by investment and hedge fund managers, pension administrators, venture capitalists and mutual funds managers.
And these are the people Aquino would like to invite for investments in the Philippines during his US visit one week from now. Very timely indeed.
i’m not saying ressa shouldn’t have written an article for the wall street journal when she did. i’m just saying she was selective and one-sided; she could have critiqued everyone involved, including the media that she’s part of. also, she could have gone for a less judgmental and sensational title and so helped mitigate rather than exacerbate the damage. puwede naman to give the president the benefit of the doubt muna, kahit pa grudgingly. nothing “PR” about that.
i liked abc 5’s luchi cruz valdez‘ response to: where do you draw the line (between national interests and media interests) :
We draw the line where human lives are at stake, number 1. Number 2 we draw the line where the life of a legitimate government is at stake.
neat sideswipe, that ;)) as for the question i raised earlier, as to whether ressa’s judgment is a reflection of that of her bosses the lopezes, say ni armida siguion-reyna in her tribune column “Honeymoon is over?”
The chismis is Ressa’s boss Gabby Lopez isn’t happy about it, but this stays scuttlebutt until confirmed.
cocktales’ vic agustin confirms:
ABS-CBN chairman Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III is already in the United States, a de-facto advance party of the business delegation that was invited to accompany P.Noy in his first foreign trip.
His dilemma: Damage control ensuing from the Wall Street Journal opinion piece written by Maria Ressa, his own network’s news and current affairs chief.
oh well. maybe we shouldn’t be counting on foreigners too much anyway? instead, tap rich filipinos with secret bank accounts abroad to invest in their own country for a change? heh. fat chance.
at least there’s still leila de lima’s report, and the prospect of heads rolling, to look forward to. that should help, kahit paano.
“why why why rub it in for all the world to read and to recall, and, of all places, in the world’s most prestigious business paper where the trustworthiness of a country is assessed,”
why use the word “rub it in”? its journalism, and its supposed to be free to tell the truth (or what it thinks is the truth).
is journalism supposed to talk about the good stuff only?
i’m confused by this media backlash…
also, we should expect that journalists will clash with their corporate bosses, right? thats what happens when there is freedom of speech. happens all the time…
ah, i’m curious ms angela…
if u think that ressa shouldnt criticize public officials, then would u also say that jobert sucaldito was wrong in criticizing willie?
you have a similar argument with willie — bakit kailangang mag-criticize ng fellow kapamilya in public?
@gabbyD:
Ressa makes herself look good at the expense of Filipinos. I suspect that that’s what upsets fair-minded or reasonable people, regardless of nationality.
Of course, Ressa can say (selectively) whatever she wants. And of course, we can call her out on her selectivity and bias. I would bet that somewhere in the usual ethics codes for journalists is a duty to be “balanced,” and not to be one-sided or to cover up something because of self-interest.
I think what Enrile meant was Why did ressa aired her opinion on international forum…the wall streat journal being read by financial managers worldwide. The implication of her “opinion” might put the whole country in bad light. She could do it in local media…but why did she do it in WSJ?
What she did was not news reporting but editorializing based on her “selective facts”. She then later on admitted under oath that the media is party to be blamed. However it was not in her article she wrote earlier.
The good thing about it…there’s no negative effect on our econimic climate for we have 9 days straight of stock market going up. That goes to show that her article did not do damage as we set the highest stock in phil. history the other day. Her cridibility on the other hand is taking a toll. Others see it as unpatriotic or anti-filipino. As for willie and jobert…they both got what they deserve.
Journalists’ Operative Words
CRIME AND CRISIS SITUATIONS* – The coverage of crimes in progress or crisis situations such as hostage-taking or kidnapping shall not put lives in greater danger than what is already inherent in the situation. Such coverage should be restrained and care should be taken so as not to hinder or obstruct efforts of authorities to resolve the situation. Example of an EXCEPTION is the Aug23 Incident.
LIVE COVERAGE – blow-by-blow account of a particular event, e.g., Manny Pacquiao fight and Aug23 Incident with long-shot camera views from a snipers’ vantage point starring the sniper himself
SELF-REGULATE – imposing news embargo when a colleague’s (“kabaro”) life is at stake, e.g., Ces Drilon in the hands of the ASG
SELF-RESTRAINT – waiting for authorities to stop whatever journalists are performing, e.g., live broadcast of an “arrest” starring Susan Enriquez and Gregorio Mendoza
Quote of the day
“Maderazo, meanwhile, said RMN-DZXL did not violate the Broadcast Code when it decided to interview the hostage-taker live on-air. He said the Broadcast Code of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) only mentions hostage situations involving terrorists, ’and Mendoza is not a terrorist.’”
Copy-pasted from “Media execs nix tighter controls” by David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com (Posted at 09/14/2010 6:18 PM, Updated as of 09/15/2010 1:35 AM)
oops…
—–
*Art. 6, Sec. 1 of the Broadcast Code of 2007; Grave offense
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“The good thing about it…there’s no negative effect on our econimic climate for we have 9 days straight of stock market going up. That goes to show that her article did not do damage as we set the highest stock in phil. history the other day”
you do not know what you are talking about.
@orlando, angela
i feel the need to press my point and express my confusion…
do we expect opinion pieces to be balanced? are opinions, as a concept, inherently “balanced”? do opinion pieces need to cover ALL the bases?
when you have an opinion about a topic, say topic X. do you ever say: I think X is wrong, but Y, Z and W are all wrong too? thats an academic paper, a factfinding report — NOT an opinion piece.
ressa’s opinion is the is mostly about govt failure, so she writes about how the govt failed. she could write about all the other things that went wrong, but that would dilute her central opinion (and hence is ineffective writing).
he never claimed in the article that media had no part. her claim is govt failure is most important.
clearly, people in this blog, angela included, picked up on what she didnt say. if it were only that, i would remind people of the purpose of an opinion piece is. that is, it must have an argument, and stick with it.
but is supect its not just that. is there more? do people disagree with ressa’s central contention of govt failure as the main culprit? do people believe that media is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor that lead to the deaths? is this, your opinion? angela’s opinion? cat’s opinion?
Your repeated use of the word “DUH” in your previous comments is proof enough of juvenile behavior. If not condescending, it’s downright sarcastic. Arguing with you is like arguing with my 12-year old niece.
because if I have to discuss about stock exchanges, stock market, bull and bearish markets, baka di mo getz. it will take us the whole semester to make you understand what an efficient market hypothesis is.
when i wrote damage control in the previous blog, you didn’t even understand what i am referring to.
victor agustin thought that if gabby lopez flew ahead of the Noynoy delegation, there must really be a need for damage control. I concur. PSE is just a small pond. The oil spill happened in an ocean. getz mo.
just to continue….
my real and only problem with ressa’s piece is that her characterization that pnoy blamed the media first is totally wrong.
thats not just an opinion. thats a fact! she was wrong on the facts! the first thing (in the press con that aug23 late evening) he did was NOT to blame media.
“LOCAL STOCKS Wednesday closed at a record level anew as investors remained upbeat on domestic economic and corporate earnings prospects.”
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20100915-292445/Shares-close-higher
“Meanwhile, stockbrokers said there might be no need to revive the afternoon session as the PSEi has been posting record highs on favorable market conditions.”
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/201069/pse-index-advances-on-selective-buying-in-blue-chips
“Coming from a nine-day rally, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (Phisix) rose 38.67 points intra-day to hit a record high of 4,011.27 Tuesday before yielding to some profit-taking.”
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/277067/psei-breaches-4000-mark-but-closes-lower
My comment is based on news reports of not just one but several media outlets. It’s certainly not based from agustin’s opinion nor from travel itinerary of one chinese businessman.
You can insult me if that makes you feel better but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m not a know-it-all alarmist like some immature bloggers. Gets mo?
“LOCAL STOCKS Wednesday closed at a record level anew as investors remained upbeat on domestic economic and corporate earnings prospects.”
Do you know what LOCAL means? Do you know what FOREIGN means.
The second is what the government needs.
For the investors in the local market to be upbeat, there is a big promise of profitability waiting for their investments. It’s all financial statements, window dressed or not.
To get foreign investors to the country, it is not enough to give them a very attractive roi, irr and, payback; there are other non-financial factors in the investment climate such as government and its policies towards foreign investments , leadership that can curb corruption and protect foreign invesments from political instability/interference. Foreign firms will have difficulty operating in the country if their people’s lives are put at risk because of the long-time insurgencies.
My goodness, how can you assure of them safety when we’re broadcasting that even our military are deficient in terms of logistics and our police authorities are inept.
Yon ang nasira sa article ni ressa.
ngayon sasabihin mo walang epekto? the information were offered. hindi man lang pinahirapan ang mga researcers at analysts.
Am sure you wil not get that from your 12 year old niece.
It could have been worse. We could have been reading the headline “phil stock down for 12 consecutive days”. I’m almost sure the alarmists like you would have been screaming their lungs out. It’s a good thing both local and foreign investors find our country’s economic climate as promising despite the debacle.
Like what I’ve said you can insult me all you want if it helps you feel better. Heck I would even pay for your 1 month session with a psychiatrist. NOT
To dispute your flawed argument regarding local and foreign investments,
“The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finished with a 0.13% or 5.19-point gain to close at 3,973.48 yesterday, more than regaining the 0.11% or 4.37 points shed last Tuesday, and exceeding the previous market high at 3,972.60 last Monday.
The broader all shares index also went up by 0.11% or 2.73 points to 2,475.53.
Net foreign buying was at P1.54 billion.”
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=17780
Alarmists like you and ressa can cry a river but you can’t bring a good country down. If I’m a betting man, I would wager all my earnings from mutual fund that 6 years from now, our economy would be as strong as ever.
sana nga, niknok ;)) sana it’s sustainable and not just the business community making extra-ordinary efforts to show their support for their president in these otherwise bleak and beleaguered times
@ angela…you mean our president, not their president. Call me hopelessly optimist but i have nothing but good fortune for our country. I fell in line to view ninoy’s body at times street. I was in edsa right after i heard veritas’ broadcast, i was in malacanang the night the dictator left. Words are not enough to describe the experiences.
I have too much at stake on the success of this country. And if i can help it, i’ll be on guard to defend our right to exist as a nation.
haha i walked right into that ;) oo naman, our president, kaya naman i’m still holding back, believe it or not
hehehe, the slips are showing. and the color of the slips is politics, :). and it cuts both ways, :).
“To dispute your flawed argument regarding local and foreign investments.”
haynaku ang clueless talaga clueless. i rest my case. meow. like angela i’m also holding back. i have no political color. cognizant of the problems in the leadership of the new government, i am not also in favor of washing dirty linen in the public esp. in the international community esp. if it can affect the image of the country. kung baga sa advertisement, bakit kailangang ilagay mo pa sa billboard with neon lights announcing that you are dumb.
BUT I ALSO DISLIKE PEOPLE WHO ARE BLINDED BY THEIR FANATICISM that they cannot discern what is reality and what is propaganda. toink.
it is not worth lecturing you on economics and financial management. all you do is copy/ paste links. booooring. at least sina benigno and cvj noon nagreresearch pag kami nagdedebate.
you are in the states where there are so many libraries with indefinite number of books that you can borrow. Try reading about image enhancement and damage control strategies of media handlers and media relations firms.
huwag lang yong pambalot ng tinapa ang binabasa mo. hahahaha.
BTW, perahin mo na lang yong ibabayad mo sa psychiatrist ko. may insurance naman ako eh.
@GabbyD:
I think it’s a fair-play rule to be transparent or make a proper disclosure. Yes, Ressa can be as biased or opinionated as she wants. It is up to those who disagree to bring up the “other side.” But Ressa talks about something in which she herself is a participant, but she makes it look like she’s coming from a place which judges without self-interest. She put out a self-serving piece, and Angela and many others and I feel a bit queasy about such rank “suckitude,” to use a blog phrase for something that stinks.
“if u think that ressa shouldnt criticize public officials, then would u also say that jobert sucaldito was wrong in criticizing willie?”
the two — ressa criticizing the president in an intl publication after the hostage-taking and sucaldito criticizing kapamilya revillame — are not comparable situations. and i never said ressa shouldn’t criticize public officials.
“do people disagree with ressa’s central contention of govt failure as the main culprit? do people believe that media is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor that lead to the deaths? is this, your opinion? angela’s opinion? cat’s opinion?”
government AND media were are equally culpable.
“government AND media were are equally culpable.”
ah, as i surmized, it is more than merely leaving out something. u disagree with her central thesis that this is mostly about govt failure. i c…
” and i never said ressa shouldn’t criticize public officials.”
this confuses me coz you wrote: “why why why further shake global confidence in our country when that confidence is so badly shaken na. ” so its ok to criticize when there is confidence, but you shouldnt when confidence is shaken?
are there conditions for criticizing the govt? only in good times? ironically, isnt it in bad time (i.e. massive govt failure) that criticizing the govt shows the value of the free press?
cmon gabbyd, youre being obtuse… stop taking stuff out of context.
@angela
on the other hand, i’m trying my best to not to be obtuse.
correct me if any of this is wrong:
you argue that “but but but even if it were true that ressa merely laid out facts, still she was selective about the facts she laid out — she said nothing on how media flunked, too”
and then you agree with kissel that its an opinion piece. i understand now that your opinion is media and govt ARE EQUALLY RESPONSIBLE. thats an ok opinion. i’m not sure if i disagree with it.
then you continue, and say why shake global confidence in our country… and i ask, why does confidence shaking matter to her writing her opinion? do we edit our opinions based on “confidence in our country”?
i’m being as transparent as possible, laying out my train of thought. if any of this is wrong, do tell me.
I don’t do research to win pissing contest. Do you actually believe the stocks are being manipulated to paint rosy picture just for damage control purposes? Or the news reports of stocks being up are lies? Wow you’re more deranged than I thought. I won’t be surprised if you’d be the next hostage taker.
lol the know-it-all alarmist who knows everything about financial management is begging for money…go figure
hihihi, this debate is getting more hilarious everyday, i’m now rolling on the floor laughing, :).
“Wow you’re more deranged than I thought. I won’t be surprised if you’d be the next hostage taker.
“lol the know-it-all alarmist who knows everything about financial management is begging for money…go figure”
excuse me angela ha kung medyo ot ako sa issue, but i want to make a donation for a surgery of a person to grow some brain.pati ba naman yong innocent comment ko seneryoso. toink toink toink. i am trying to be “mabait na” but people who misinterprets my comment really irks me.
ako pa ngayon hostage taker. ano ang ihohostage ko, daga? bwaaaahhahahaha
no prob, cat ;)
@ Bert nakakatawa diba. Imbes na sabihing “I beg to disagree” gumagamit ng mga salitang “you do not know what you are talking about” pati pambalot ng tinapa pinag initan pa. Imbes na Winnie monsod naging anabelle rama.
“i am trying to be mabait na but people who misinterprets my comment really irks me”
You are what irks you. I commented on ressa’s WSJ article that it has no effect on local economy because of record-high stocks. Instead of disputing it by giving your side, you insulted me left and right. Of course I’d react. This is a public forum and respect is valued. No matter how valid your argument is, adding insults to your comments solicits negative response.
Respect…you can’t learn that from research. If you think you are smart and people disagree with you, it doesn’t mean they are stupid. It means you differ in opinion.
Ok na sana at binawi mo yung pang-iinsulto mo nung una. Nagsabi ka pa nga na kesa makipag away ka eh aalis ka na lang. Inignore ko na nga yung damage contol comment mo sa kaiblang thread para di na lumaki pero inulit mo na naman. Yun ba ang mabait?
Never reduce the debate to ad hominem if it irks you. Truce?
@ Angela:
It’s too early to tell if it’s sustainable considering the volatility of the market. But it’s a good start I think. The lagging economy in the u.s. are making the investors look elsewhere and our country is the beneficiary of that. Of course there would be profit-taking and the market correcting itself. Despite how bad others think, I’m still hopeful
“Foreign investors continued to boost the local market with P630 million in net buying reported by the PSE for the day”. – Phil Daily inquirer
@niknok: It’s a “bigger-fool” game when you have a stock market bubble, which seems to be the case. (There is even a nascent or latent bubble in real estate.) Foreign money can be just as, if not more, bubbly than local. If foreign money were rational, the Aug. 23 event would have dampened the market.
” Never reduce the debate to ad hominem if it irks you. ”
you were the first to draw blood when you wrote that I should handle hostage taking when I was just expressing my opinion. and then you visited my blog and made use of my personal information to make fun of me, that is just so low.
i got my link in my website, you are just one of the anonymous commenters. no persona. it is unfair to be throwing mud to somebody while wearing a cloak of anonimty.
ad hominem? calling me deranged? insinuating that i am financially challenged to get interested with your offer na you will finance my session with a shrink na baka kulang pa pambili ng sapatos ko. nahihya lang talaga ako kay angela na patulan ka.
when i mentioned about stock exchange, you did not get the issue that i was driving at. stock exchange is not a good sole indicator of an economy of a country neither it reflects the leadership of a head of a nation. bullish market is just a short term phenomenon.
I would not repeat what I mentioned about the kind of leadership of the president that may be demanded by the financial community that is being courted for investments.
this leadership was the focus of the article of ressa in the WSJ. It may have tainted the image of the nation’s leadership as to security risk which is one factor in the consideration of investing in a country.
That is the damage that has been done that even a short term bullish market in the PHilippines may not be able to repair in a short span of time that it was published and the US working visit of the president.
Buble or not, it still remains to be proven. The strong presence of foreign investment in local market i think is a healthy sign as opposed to noticeable absence due to Aug 23 event. I don’t think the local money alone would be able to sustain a bullish market.
Let’s see how the investors react after IIRC report.
So you think i visited your blog site…now i know where your agression is coming from. I’m sorry but I got better things to do than that. I don’t know you and I could care less if you have attitude problems but I never visted your blog. Stop making false accusations and we’ll be fine.
Let me rephrase. It’s a good thing we we didn’t have bear market for days as a direct result of ressa’s article. Despite the hostage crisis, our market shows bullish tendencies.
I’m trying to be optimistic on my comment and i get the reply, “you don’t know what you’re talking about”. Kesyo hindi ko alam ang difference ng local sa foregn bear sa bull…and it might take me a semester to understand stcoks. Nakakagulat ang aggression. To think i’m making positive remark for the country. The logical thing to conclude is that someone’s deranged.
Yun pala napagkamalan akong stalker sa blog nya. Be careful about paranoia for could cloud your reasons. Anyway i’m repeating my offer of truce.
“@niknok: It’s a “bigger-fool” game when you have a stock market bubble, which seems to be the case. (There is even a nascent or latent bubble in real estate.) Foreign money can be just as, if not more, bubbly than local. If foreign money were rational, the Aug. 23 event would have dampened the market.”-Orlando
This ‘bubble’ description of what’s happening to the stock market and real estate in the Philippines I think is just a personal opinion of Orlando. There is no conspicuous evidence to indicate an artificial manipulations of the market by the business sector. And, for what purpose would they do that? There is no discernable political upheaval in the offing during the near foreseeable future that would cause business to move erratically. On the contrary, the bullishness can be felt physically; stock prices are up, mutual/trust funds N.A.V.P.S. on steady rise, even Villar’s real estate companies are reaping profit from the business sector’s confidence in the new government. So what ‘bubbles’ are we talking about?
This brouhaha about that hostage-taking incident affecting local and foreign investment movement is too much ado over nothing. After all, it was just one policeman losing his head. There is not enough cause or reason for business to worry about. Is there?
@ Bert: That’s exactly my point. Thank you for articulating it so eloquently. No cause for alarm and no need for alarmists…at least not yet.
@Bert: I said “it seems” to be the case. A bubble is any rise in price, not necessarily by manipulation, that reflects undue optimism. If the optimism turns out correct, then it’s not a bubble. If it is a bubble, it will burst and the market will crash. The problem is that no one knows when the crash will come because it is impossible to predict how long “greater fools” will continue to come in to sustain the bubble. In effect, a bubble is a legal Ponzi.
Bubbles usually appear when there is easy bank credit (which is true today). The BSP is very careful about this because it doesn’t want to kill the stock market, but since it errs on that side of “caution,” a bubble is quite likely in today’s low-interest rate environment. The problem with bubbles is that the crash that follows tends to bring down the broader economy, a large part of which are innocent bystanders.
@Niknok: If you decide to put real money on your optimism, at least I did my best Robert Shiller spiel on this.
“If it is a bubble, it will burst and the market will crash.”
That’s a big IF, Orlando. Which means you do not know whether it’s a bubble or not a bubble. Which means you are looking at the thing not sure what it is, and speculating on its negative and gloomy out come. Some people might call that negative thinking. Well, that’s your opinion, of course, and I don’t have the right to dispute that even if we disagree.
@ Orlando: Logistics prevent me from playing the local stock market. I’d rather diversify so I have mututal funds on emerging markets, and one of them is the phils according to dow jones list. It’s long term investment so lesser risk compared to buying stocks. Salary deduction kaya hindi ramdam.
hmm, i’ve been hearing nga that business is good these days, the stockmarket bullish, the real estate industry really moving, a lot of profit-taking. my initial reaction was, umm, wazzup wazzup, real or artificial? if real, will it translate to better times for everyone, down to the masses, eventually? if a bubble, what will it take kaya to burst it. yes, good old cynicism. like orlando maybe, i find its hard to take anything at face value around here, there are always layers and layers of hidden agendas, hidden costs. also, it’s happening in a time of transition, when we’re neither here nor there, no new directions from the president yet, so, is this a vote for the status quo?
“There is no discernable political upheaval in the offing during the near foreseeable future that would cause business to move erratically.”
i disagree. noynoy is a political upheaval in himself and not necessarily wittingly. critics — including many who campaigned and voted for him — are counting down to the final days of the hundred-day honeymoon.
even bangko sentral’s tetangco is very watchful and wary, the peso rising a little too fast for him…
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2010/september/16/news1.isx&d=2010/september/16
@angela
just curious… are comments being deleted? it is of course your right to do whatever you want, but i wanted to ask coz i swear i saw niknok’s comment here earlier and now its gone, and i wanted to know if i was just imagining it there or not… ty!
yes, the last ones. may hangganan din pala ang tolerance ko for ad hominems.
I apologize Angela. I offered a truce and it was turned down…but the offer still stays :)
so angela. i’m watching the media hearings right now, and what i’m reading here is the same as JPE and joker arroyo’s comments… if its bad news, we shouldnt report it to the world? is that the conclusion we arrive at?
i dont get it.
the world is going to find out anyway. but i won’t be the one to tell them.
Filipinos are tight-knit families. It’s a taboo to discuss family troubles in public. The culture is evident in these proceedings. When it comes to my family problems, you can hear it from someone else but not from me. It’s a different matter in western culture.
i’m surprised at this kind attitude towards the press.
there was a time, when people wanted to show the world that the philippines was under a dictatorship. people wanted to know about human rights abuses, corruption, etc.
this is no different. but what changed? i dont get it.
bakit ngayon nahihiya ang mga senador. pero dati, the freedom of the press is so important and heroic.
i dont get it.
“oh well. maybe we shouldn’t be counting on foreigners too much anyway?”-angela
Oh yes. and maybe we shouldn’t be counting on maria ressa anyway since she’s a Pinoy anti-pinoy journalist.
She said, “I merely laid out the facts … the way events played out … there really was failure of the chain of command…”
The dirty linen. She could invoke freedom of speech, or pamper herself with her being a true journalist. But, by writing her bias opinion in a foreign press when she can do it here, she chooses to wash her dirty linen where the whole world can see the dirt of her own home. A truly anti-pinoy trait.
I hope GabbyD can see this angle of what maria ressa has done.
noong martial law, walang freedom of speech dito, only censorship. so it was all right to go to america and inform the world of the conjugal dictatorship and human rights abuses to pressure washington to stop supporting the dictator. iba naman yung ngayon.
@bert
i dont think the notion of free press works that way. the press shows “dirt” to everyone. they should be truthful tho, and while ressa’s piece its true, its AT WORST ncomplete.
but let me engage your argument more directly. lets say its true that press shouldnt engage in showing people the dirty linen of a country.
that argument practically invalidates ALL/100% of investigative journalism in the world/in the country. to pick one example: the maguindanao massacre. should we not share this with the rest of the world? the country?
hindi ba nakakahiya ang massacre na ito? nakakasira sa confidence?
other countries where the press FAILED to cover it. the existence of WMD in iraq. the media (mostly) ate up the administration belief. ironically, the SAME argument was used by the admin… its not patriotic to disagree with the admin about foreign policy. in other words “nakakasira sa confidence”.
what happened? the iraq war happened.
none of this is simple. but thats the price of living in a democracy.
@angela
what i meant was, while today there is no dictatorship, theres still a lot wrong with the country.
if we were happy to expose the ills of society back then, why not now?
“but let me engage your argument more directly. lets say its true that press shouldnt engage in showing people the dirty linen of a country.”-GabbyD
I’m sorry, Gabby, you haven’t engaged my argument directly. I mean, you missed my point, :). I never said that press should not engage in showing people the dirty linen of a country. In fact, I’m a firm believer in the freedom of speech and press freedom, and the press should expose anything, anything they deemed worth exposing, up to their heart’s content.
My point actually, GabbyD, is not the press in general but maria ressa as a Filipino journalist, which, I believe, was also the point of the senators, and also the point of our blog owner, angela, and which I said I hope you could see the angle in this debate, on her ‘washing her linen’ abroad instead of in her own home.
@bert
whats the difference between the press “showing people the dirty linen of a country” and ressa doing the same?
isnt she a member of the press?
My answer to your question, GabbyD, is a parallel question, a sort of an analogy to what we are discussing, but a question.
If the Philippines is your home, and you have a dirty linen that you have to wash, the linen dirty enough that it might embarrass your family. Are you going to wash it at the middle of the plaza where people congregate, or, are you going to wash it inside your home instead? With this question, we have to assume that there is a universal freedom of washing, just to complete the analogy, heheh.
Still, to engage your question directly, the difference between Pinoy maria ressa ‘showing the world the dirty linen of her country” and the foreign press doing the same is that maria ressa is embarrassing her own country’s president to the world with bias opinion which is very unpatriotic, while the foreign press, in the name of press freedom, can embarrass the president to their heart’s content for all I care.
@bert
i guess we’ll just agree to disagree. also a plea:
kung masusunod ka, kawawa naman ang mga local journalists, as professionals.
think about it: u think that foreign journalists ARE MORE FREE than local journalists.
why did we fight for a free society if we bind local journalists in the way you are saying. for sure masakit if someone notices the problems in a place. but thats is the reality of the world.
sana, you can change your position on this. i suspect many people think like you too.
so i ask you to reconsider, because the IMPLICATIONS of your argument are disheartening.
@gabbyd ;) so you don’t really get what “national interest” is all about, no?
@angela
i think national interest is an abstract concept that can house many different ideas, and that many people, even reasonable people, can at first blush, disagree about what it is in specific cases.
hopefully, thru discussion, a consensus can be reached about what is, or is NOT, in the national interest.
is this clear enough?
Ressa’s article was not news but editorial. It was not an account of events that played out but an opinion of the president’s failures. Based on balay and samar group? Her allegations if not unfounded are premature and incomplete. That’s the whole reason of the backlash against her…but not necessarily the entire phil media.
It’s very much different from the martial law era where the people in govt were suppressing freedom of the press to preserve their hold to power. JPE and Joker are both members of the opposition (not allies of admin) and their motivations are far from that of a dictator. Joker even admitted he’s scared of the media.
I agree to disagree with you, GabbyD.
You said: “think about it: u think that foreign journalists ARE MORE FREE than local journalists.”
Not true. I think that local journalists and foreign journalists as individuals are the same in as much as doing their job as journalist is concern. They are as free to do what their inclinations dictates them to do in their coverage of events anywhere in the world. Some or any of them may want to be nationalistic or patriotic, may opt for what is best for the national interest of their country, as angela termed it. And some or any of them may opt to disregard it, as maria ressa did. It’s an individual choice. If you’re a journalist, GabbyD, I think I have a good idea now of what kind of journalist you are going to be. I’m hoping you’ll have a change of heart.
You see, GabbyD, love of country is the same as love of family, if I may have to extend my analogy from my previous comments. I’ll be sad if you’ll disagree with that too.
@bert, angela
its best to discuss specific cases.
ok. can you explain why ressa’s piece hurt the national interest?
VS.
the journalists who wrote about the maguindanao massacre? did these journalists hurt the natl interest too?
BOTH cases involved govt screwing up. whats the difference? why does that difference matter?
if u can explain, that’d be great.
“ok. can you explain why ressa’s piece hurt the national interest?”
the discussion is going full circle now, :). my answer anyway: maria ressa was “washing her dirty linen in foreign public”.
“the journalists who wrote about the maguindanao massacre? did these journalists hurt the natl interest too?
BOTH cases involved govt screwing up. whats the difference? why does that difference matter?
if u can explain, that’d be great.”
my answer is a question to you, GabbyD: Can you tell us which Filipino journalist wrote a bias opinion in the Wall Street Journal about the Maguindanao massacre derogatory to our president?
i c. its much clearer now what the real problem is from your POV.
1) its a “biased” opinion. if its “unbiased”, then its ok. naturally: who decides if its biased? that is never apparent. is this just code for “i dont agree with it”?
if u dont agree with an opinion, thats fine. the discussion can end there. but “bias” requires more.
let me anticipate a response: if u say its biased coz she didnt mention the role of media, let me stress 2 things:
a) she didnt say the press didnt do anything wrong. had she said that, i would agree that this is bias.
b) her opinion is about noynoy administrations’ failure. in X number of words, she had to be specific in her topic. thats a basic objective of opinion writing [i.e. have a clear thesis statement and give arguments to support it]
2) its derogatory to the president
hhmmm… but the maguindanao massacre was a failure on PGMA. no one was shouting “not in the national interest” then!
presidents from cory’s time to now have been subject to one kind of criticism or another. but has anyone said “Mr. X’s opinion piece criticizing president Y hurt the national interest”? if yes, whats the reason?
again, is this code for “i like noynoy aquino” therefore “attacking noynoy”=”attacking the national interest”?
OK. to summarize: being biased hurts the national interest. define bias! criticizing the president is hurting the country. fine. we’ve been hurting the country since the country was born?
actually, may isa pa: it came out in WSJ. why does that matter, who published it?
GabbyD,
I want to know who is that Filipino journalist who wrote a bias opinion in the Wall Street Journal so I can answer your question of whether the Filipino journalist also hurt the national interest too by “washing his/her dirty linen” in foreign public, heheh. Now I’m getting persnickety, :).
GabbyD,
My POV has nothing to do with being pro-Noynoy or anti-Noynoy, and not so much about “bias opinion”. My POV is about Filipino journalist without consideration of own country’s national interest by writing indiscriminate opinion in foreign publication for the purpose of catching the world’s attention about negative things happening in his/her own country. That’s all. If you think, GabbyD, that writing negativity about ones country is good for the country, then I rest my case. Last word is yours.
@Bert:
It’s ok to disagree. But I agree with you I won’t really know if it’s a bubble until after the crash. But I can have an educated guess because not guessing (as best I can) can be very costly. For now, it looks like the beginning of a bubble. It may last 2-3 years, and people can have a merry time at it, but they’re taking chances.
@Gabby:
I think I see your point. You’re defending Ressa’s right to freedom of expression, and that’s it. But what she did stinks, and I too have a right to say that. She didn’t really add to the debate, but she covered up for media, including her employer. That is self-serving, not quite at the level of “envelopmental” journalism, but it’s unethical PR. Journalists are not supposed to be PR hacks.
@Niknok:
Good luck. I think emerging markets is a minefield. A bit like buying penny mine stocks. Just kidding..
:O)=oF ALL COMMENTS MADE ON THIS BLOG RE:RESSA’S BIGGEST MEDIA BLUNDER, BERT’S HAS THE MOST SENSIBLE, BALANCED, LEVEL HEADED AND PATRIOTIC P.O.V. TECHNICALLY, I AM NOT A MEDIA PRACTIONER BUT IF THERE ARE ETHICS OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM BEING FOLLOWED BY RESSA, PROBABLY SHE WOULD NOT FALL IN THE TRAP OF BEING RECKLESSLY SELF-RIGHTEOUS AND SELF-SERVING.
thank you, joji. love that compliment. thank you, man!
@Bert on September 21st, 2010 at 12:21 pm
” indiscriminate opinion in foreign publication for the purpose of catching the world’s attention about negative things happening in his/her own country. ”
ito nga ang hindi ko maintindihan. if writing negative things about the country is WRONG then almost all journalistic pieces about RP is wrong.
writing about maguindanao massacre is WRONG. i’m sure someone has written about that massacre in local and foreign outlets. is writing about that wrong?
remember the le cirque article criticizing the president? hindi ba nakakahiya yun? so why not the same sentiment for that?
@Orlando R on September 21st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
i’d like to challenge you a bit here.
you write: ” but she covered up for media, including her employer”
Q: what did she write to cover up for the media? her thesis statement is “Noy made mistakes”. Did she write: “media didnt cause the deaths”?
i will say for sure she was wrong when she said the first thing noy did is blame the media. thats not what he did.
but that is NOT your argument. if u can prove your argument, that would be great.
writing about maguindanao massacre, writing about le cirque, for foreign consumption was all right. both happened deep into arroyo’s presidency and her culpability was hardly questioned, even if indirectly only in the massacre bec of her unquestioned support of the ampatuans. we wanted her shamed for both that and the le cirque overspending. it was in the national interest to do so.
iba naman the hostage-taking debacle. a new presidency, nangangapa pa, puwede namang bigyan pa ng benefit of the doubt muna. puwede namang sa atin-atin na lang muna. for the sake of political stability. in the national interest.
@GabbyD:
You can commit sin by omission, no?
It’s aka the Washington nod-and-wink syndrome. What we don’t talk about is even more important. It’s a name-and-frame-the-issue tactic. Because Ressa focuses on government failure, she makes it look like there was no media failure.
Analogously, the Left-Right debate is just as tainted. The Left don’t want to talk about the power they want so they can redistribute wealth to themselves. The Right don’t want to talk about the power they have to manipulate markets or even government. The Left will talk about the misery of the unemployed and the exploited masses. The Right will talk about freedom and liberty till the cows come home. No wonder politicians have a bad rep.
But getting back to Ressa. I think it was Angela who said that only when Ressa was under oath (and I guess because she was asked point blank) before a Senate hearing that she made some kind of admission that media was also at fault. I thought Ressa’s WSJ piece was more of a PR job than a good op-ed. Of course that’s just my opinion.
“Analogously, the Left-Right debate is just as tainted….”
this is a reasonable critique. but i note that this is different from “washing linen in public”/”national interest” argument that i’ve been hearing here.
while this is off-topic already, i can say i am firmly in jon stewart’s camp: i believe that US 24hour networks are catering to extreme partisan interests, and that this, while very entertaining, is not useful. [parenthetically, watching, say Fox news, is like debating the antipinoy people. they refuse to get off the party line and acknowledge any point(s) from any other viewpoint. its all very entertaining, but useless]
also: “I think it was Angela who said that only when Ressa was under oath (and I guess because she was asked point blank) before a Senate hearing that she made some kind of admission that media was also at fault”—- not true. ABS, with ressa’s involvement, came out with a statement a day after the 23rd attesting to abs’s failure. this statement is the same statement given to the senate.
@GabbyD: I’m happy to be corrected on the timeline of Ressa’s admissions. But since, as you say, ABS-CBN admitted its negligence, it’s a cake walk to sue the network for damages.
I agree with you as regards the mindlessness of tv or of tabloid news. They rely on ad revenue, and the lowest common polemical denominator works.
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