ressa’s chilling effect

silence
by radikalchick

because i’d be lying if i said that Maria Ressa throwing the words libel and malicious my way didn’t render me speechless, literally and figuratively.

but maybe what was worse than throwing that my way was the fact that it was also retracted with a brush-off: filing a case would be too much for too little. i haven’t been patronized like this publicly, have never felt let down by someone i respect since, oh i don’t know, i applied for a job at UP Diliman and got a version of this from an ex-teacher. but this is different from the latter in that i was not applying for a job with Ressa, and there is no — there is no — notion of seniority that should have mattered here. of course randomsalt has so succinctly pointed out that it isn’t what it seems from where Ressa stands.

Read on

remembering Edsa Dos & Tres #CJ impeachment (updated)

not surprisingly, no one cares to remember Edsa Dos, obviously because installing gloria macapagal arroyo turned out to be a grievous mistake, like a giant 10-year step backward.  what if, instead of ousting estrada, we had allowed the impeachment trial of erap to take its course.

if he had been convicted, then gloria would have assumed power legally and constitutionally and would not have owed her position to the hilario davide supreme court that happily legitimized the unconstitutional, and to the angelo reyes military that readily changed sides after some smart wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.  then, maybe arroyo’s 9-, almost 10-year, rule would have turned out differently.  and maybe she would not have been so heavyhanded in dealing with estrada, and Edsa Tres — another major major event that we like to forget — would not have happened.

if he had been acquitted, then what if we had gone to edsa to demand better governance, maybe to insist that gloria accept estrada’s invitation to head the Economic Coordinating Council, or even to take up estrada’s offer of snap elections.  then maybe we would not be where we are now — trying to convict an impeached chief justice who was appointed by gloria and therefore not to be trusted to be impartial when her electoral sabotage case, allegedly weak, comes up before the supreme court.  meanwhile the hacienda luisita ruling is up for “clarification and reconsideration” by the supreme court and the cojuangcos are demanding that the impeached chief justice inhibit himself, hay naku.

the impeachment trial now ongoing reminds too much of erap’s impeachment trial and Edsa Dos.  let it remind too, please, of Edsa Tres, which was not all hakot.  what offends me most is when pundits insist that it’s more a political than a judicial proceeding, meaning that technicalities that work in favor of the defense should be set aside because it is not in the public interest.  this is based, i suppose, on the 70%+ approval rating of the prez, these 70%+ being presumed to be supportive of his campaign to kick out corona and convict gma in line with “daang matuwid”.

so okay, meron ding mass base ang presidente, but i would think that this mass base is a volatile fluid force.  media loves to point out that the masses, based on random on-the-street in-the-palengke interviews, don’t even know who corona is, but hey, they are paying attention to the impeachment proceedings which are not only televised, but covered live on radio and played on buses and jeepneys, and there’s such a thing as a learning curve.  soon they might know enough to make up their own minds, lalo na’t hindi naman sila nagbabasa ng pro-palace spins ng compromised media diyan, mainstream and online.

so ingat ingat lang, senator-jurors who are so early in the game showing your biases and even helping out the surprisingly inept prosecution lawyers (who i guess were more focused on harassing corona into resigning than preparing for trial), like drilon has been doing.  baka sabihin ng masa inaapi si corona, hala!  ingat din, senator-jurors like trillanes who has already said he would be guided by public sentiment.  how to measure public sentiment across classes, short of a referendum?  twould be wiser, and more honourable, to be guided by the evidence, after hearing both the prosecution AND the defense.

calling out ressa

a public apology via social media is in order, methinks.

in case you’re not on facebook or twitter, check out this sequence of tweets over radikalchick’s opinion blog going to the dogs, a follow-up on lito zulueta’s Who will watch the watchdog? that was in response to luis teodoro’s Rule makers and rule breakers — all still about questions that rappler.com, after promising “uncompromised journalism,” refuses to answer, questions re its clear bias against impeached sc chief justice corona whose trial begins today.

thanks to j.o.m. salazar aka randomsalt for finding all the relevant tweets and putting them in sequence via storify:

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa implies blogger guilty of libel 

Tweets exchanged between @angel_alegre, @maria_ressa, @radikalchick, @randomsalt, and @wolverinabee regarding a blog post by @radikalchick on a recent Rappler story re Chief Justice Corona and the University of Santo Tomas. Read that post here: <http://www.radikalchick.com/going-to-the-dogs/>

angel alegre @maria_ressa interesting pov on teodoro-zulueta (and ressa) case: radikalchick.com/going-to-the-dogs [12 jan]

Maria Ressa @angel_alegre funny @radikalchick never asked me before she wrote and am only a tweet away. Guess that separates the pros … [12 jan]

Maria Ressa @angel_alegre I suppose every news group that did a story on memes is paid? Careful abt assumptions. They tell more about the observer. [12 jan]

Maria Ressa @angel_alegre Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but the crowd decides. Thanks for sharing! [12 jan]

KatStuartSantiago @maria_ressa ask you about what exactly? [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @radikalchick Ask for an intvw – before making libelous charges based on assumptions alone. Wouldn’t publish without it.

J.O.M. Salazar @radikalchick Is @maria-ressa accusing you of libel? [13 jan]

katstuartsantiago @randomsalt it seems that is a question for @maria_ressa to answer, don’t you think? [13 jan]

J.O.M. Salazar @radikalchick True. Just startled a pro like @maria_ressa would so readily invoke libel given how it’s been used to harrass journos. [13 jan]

KatStuartSantiago @randomsalt friday the 13th kasi. :) tchaka walang ibang kumu-kuwestyon sa kanila.  [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @randomsalt @radikalchick Would say it’s malicious and unfounded, but would not go as far as filing case. Too much over too little. [13 jan]

J.O.M.Salazar @radikalchick If @maria_ressa bristles at being questioned, she proves her own thesis about PHL power-distance index. bit.ly/zl6gr1  [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @randomsalt @radikalchick Just expected better, I guess. A charge deserves a response bef publishing. [13 jan]

J.O.M. Salazar @maria_ressa Seems to me @radikalchick’s questions are less malicious than say, “Who’s lying, Corona or UST?” @rapplerdotcom [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @randomsalt I actually answer questions. But the questions need to be asked first. [13 jan]

J.O.M. Salazar @maria_ressa She did ask questions. I’m puzzled you think such questions are necessarily malicious. @radikalchick [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @randomsalt sorry, received no questions. Would’ve answered. Did intvws yday with several bloggers. @radikalchick  [13 jan]

Rina (wolverinabee) hhhmm. interesting developments between @maria_ressa and @radikalchick. hoping for healthy, and ultimately instructive discussion. [13 jan]

Maria Ressa @wolverinabee @radikalchick always, hopefully :-) [13 jan]

katstuartsantiago wow. you invoke libel, call my writing malicious & unfounded, and THEN you end with “always, hopefully” and a smiley? wow, @maria_ressa [13 jan]

we missed ressa’s second and third tweets because she didn’t tag @radikalchick — bakit kaya — so for a while there, after reading re-reading radikalchick’s piece, we could only assume that ressa had found offensive these questions that katrina had raised:

… unlike Teodoro, i don’t think there’s anything petty at all about the issues that Zulueta raises here with regards transparency. in the same way that they call out Zulueta for being a UST professor writing for the Inquirer, why can we not question Teodoro for his own link to the CMFR and Business World? why can we not insist that everyone – especially the media personalities who are calling themselves watchdogs — be transparent about their own biases and links to each other?

so for transparency’s sake: i owe Lito Zulueta for getting my feet wet in arts criticism, and publishing me in the Inquirer’s Arts and Book section in 2009. I stopped writing for the Inquirer in 2010.

now let me dare the Ressas and Teodoros of this world: what are the personal links that exist for you? who are you friends with, and can you at any point critique them privately or publicly? does it matter at all that Teodoro is co-writer with Vitug in a CMFR book like Media in Court(1997)?

or maybe, we wondered, it was this that offended?

… a love affair exists among those who are holding the fort of “new media” | “online media” — self-proclaimed and otherwise. if anything i am reminded that in media, as with the literary world, and maybe every aspect of this Pinoy culture, what keeps the status quo are friendships: ones that run deep, ones that are unquestioned from within. the question for Ressa and Teodoro really is whether or not theycould have at any point disagreed with Vitug on this and any story? the question for all of us who blindly want to be invited into the bubble of middle class media and sort-of-NGO work is how many questions will we then fail to ask?

all valid questions.  by no stretch of the imagination is any of it libelous or malicious or unfounded.  it is critical, yes, and is that bawal na ngayon?

moreover, ressa’s insistence that she should have been asked/interviewed first before publishing, as a pro would have done daw, had us falling from our seats in shock.  ano daw?  ano siya.  sacred cow?  and since when have opinion blogs fallen under her purview?

then came J.O.M.’s storify and the second and third ressa tweets: “I suppose every news group that did a story on memes is paid? Careful abt assumptions. They tell more about the observer.” … “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but the crowd decides.”

so where did katrina suggest/assume that “every news group that did a story on memes is paid”?  not here, surely:

rappler has quietly revealed itself to be about helping out government instead of being a critical voice that at the very least asks: how much was paid BBDO for this campaign and is it worth it? i guess no questions like that for “uncompromised journalism” now tagging itself as “citizen journalism.”

katrina was asking how much BBDO got paid, not rappler!  double vision, ressa?  slip of the tweet?  kneejerk defense?

so later she backpedals, but not to take back the libel accusation, and only after using the M word: “Would say it’s malicious and unfounded, but would not go as far as filing case. Too much over too little.”

too little?  she sullies katrina’s good name and the quality of her writing with the L word and the M word, and then says it’s “too little” to file a case over?  after she had deemed it big enough to tweet in no uncertain terms to her 74,782 twitter followers???  and i assume THAT is her “crowd” that will “decide”???  incredible!  yeah, like kris :(

irresponsible na nga, patronizing pa, looking down condescendingly on katrina from her cocky perch up there, wherever, in the dizzying heights of cyberspace obviously, giddy and gaga over her “popularity” and the support and adulation she’s been getting from her friends and cohorts (silence=support) in mainstream and social media?  yeah, she’s so back in the big-time now, we hear she even has links to, i mean, gets leaks from, the palace, no less.

check out benignO’s post World Bank report on Supreme Court ‘ineligible funds’ inappropriately leaked to Rappler? that i posted on my facebook wall, to which political analyst malu tiquia and journalist nini yarte, among others, reacted:

Malou Tiquia : what seems to have been ignored was that the WB project was implemented in 2003 under CJ DAVIDE, whose son was endorsed by PNOY during the 2010 elections. Unfortunately, the WB fund was audited during the Corona watch. The head of the Project Committee was even another Justice and not Corona.

Stuart Santiago : reading the inquirer version now, malou… hmm, kay corona ibinunton lahat, no? grabe.

Malou Tiquia : some in media created/abetted/supported the 2010 winner; media is ensuring they picked the right candidate unlike in 2001 when they allowed themselves to be used to oust Erap. If only media plays its role, then all of us will be served well. Now, if they would still blame Corona under command responsibility, the incumbent leader in the Executive Branch should be subjected to the same rigor too.

Nini Yarte : So it was a leaked story after all from a tainted source at that. No wonder rappler did not bother to get the reaction of people mentioned in the article. I was looking for the reply of JRSP to WB’s demand letter in the report, given the seriousness of the matter, there was none. So much for fair and objective journalism. If rappler’s advocacy is to bring down corona, it’s fine with me. But, mind, that’s not journalism.

Nini Yarte : … It’s a goldmine to us journalists, a scoop. But even when it’s a leaked story, the good practice, ethical, if you will, in journalism is to inform people that will be adversely affected by the story that such and such a report will be published and would they care to comment or give their side of the story. If they refuse to comment, that in itself is reported. The WB story is too one-sided for comfort. Now, if rappler wants to become like wikileaks, okay with me. But wikileaks does not brand itself as the bastion of good journalism. :)

trial by publicity, and rappler is part of it.  too bad.

like i’ve said on facebook, okay lang naman, kanya-kanyang diskarte.  but ressa should get down to earth, learn to respond rationally, and not cry bloody libel like a baby, when faced with criticism.  i know from experience that the blogosphere can be unforgiving of major lapses, lalo na pag ayaw umamin ng isang nagkamali o ayaw mag-sorry ng isang naka-offend.

i’ve been an independent and active political blogger for more than 3 years now, radikalchick for two.  we have built up our credibility slowly and patiently.  our comments sections are open to all (we only delete spam and trash), as are our twitter streams.  we are quick to apologize, to admit to mistakes, and to express thanks when a reader points out an error or gap in our reasoning.  we are also quick to thank anyone who offers new info/links/perspectives that raise the level of discourse.

we know to be careful, to self-edit, dahil nakataya ang pangalan namin.  we do not hide behind pseudonyms or orgs.  our blogs are us, up close and political.

a public apology would soothe radikalchick’s ruffled feathers some.  of course, we’re not waiting with bated breath.  given my own history with ressa, i don’t know that she’s up to it.  and then again, who knows.  she might see the light.  hope springs eternal.

JORGE ARAGO, rogue scholar (1943-2011)

Jorge would have turned 69 today. He was in the middle of three projects: a ghost-writing gig for a politico friend; the Ishmael Bernal biography, long in the making, that was taking shape slowly but surely; and a historical novel set in his hometown of Binangonan as seen through the eyes of his family, so said Loreto Purisima at the wake.

It was the first I had heard of the novel, but Jorge himself had told Loreto about it not too long ago, with the bilin that, if anything happened to him, Loreto was to tell his family to turn over the material to me to finish. A novel! What do I know about novel-writing, or about Binangonan, or his family history.

The Bernal bio is problematic enough. I’ve seen chapters, and there’s no pretending I can write like that, and I don’t know enough about him and Ishmael in their earlier fun years of Black Angel discotheque, When it is a Grey November in Your Soul Coffee Shop, Pagdating sa Dulo atbp. I met them only in 1980, and only as an astrologer, with very little sense of how long and deep and intellectual and creative their friendship was, which started in U.P. Diliman when they met in a freshman Geology class and Jorge was “thin as a pistil,” said Bernal, although he himself “could not have been more substantial than a tendril,” wrote Jorge.

It was just in time to watch them from the sidelines as I tagged along with Mitch Valdez to shoots of Manila By Night, and a couple of years later, to celebrate the success of Himala in the days of Imee Marcos’s Experimental Cinema. Those were the good old days for the film industry and for creatives like Ishmael and Jorge.

Jorge is best known for writing the winner scripts of Bernal’s Nunal sa Tubig (1976) which focused on tradition and change as basic themes of fishing life in the Laguna lake region, and Briccio Santos’s Ala Verde, Ala Pobre (2005), about poverty and the corruption it breeds in a community along the ‘riles’ (railroad tracks). He was also part of every film Bernal ever made, the one with whom Bernal brainstormed for days and nights on end, who shared Bernal’s disdain for established canons, instead using film to mirror, not escape, reality, lighting up, and starkly, cynically, the dark side of Filipino society.

Yet Jorge was not only into feature films. Fortified by an A.B. in Journalism & Comparative Literature and a B.S. in Geology, he was into all kinds of writing for all media — news for print, radio, and TV; copy for print and TV ads; writing for art and cultural publications, magazines and books, on land reform and development communications, on the environment and sustainable development; documentary films and video productions on a wide range of subjects and nationalist advocacies, some of which he himself directed and edited.

According to the CV he wrote in aid of getting funding for his indie projects, Jorge took civil service exams for information writer and for cultural attache and passed both, which must have qualfied him for those gigs abroad, writing and directing a film docu on the People’s Republic of China as it opened up to the world in the last years of Mao Tse-tung; and covering presidential state visits that occasioned, among others, stints with Moscow and Havana TV.

He was also scriptwriter for several UP Film Center projects in Ms. Virgie Moreno’s term, among them a theatre-production for the UNESCO in Paris surrounding German efforts to preserve the physical integrity of early Filipino film classics. Twice he represented the country at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival), the first time as subtitlist of an early Celso Ad Castillo film, and the last time as one of the writers for Manila By Night, which was finally shown in Berlin ten years after it was invited.

A phenomenally well-informed and interdisciplinary thinker, Jorge kept abreast of the latest in philosophical, scientific, religious, political, literary, and critical thought, even gossip and pop culture (he loved the worldwide web). But he was also funny and playful, with a gayly wry sense of humor, a rogue scholar engaged, immersed, in Philippine studies not in some ivory tower but on the ground, in the field, wherever mind and heart and libido took him, in and out of Binangonan, until, it would seem, home became field, and he was just happy to be back in the old neighborhood, with his Nanay, and his books.

His Bernal project was quite ambitious: besides the book, he hoped to produce two compact discs: one, a 60-minute video portrait of Bernal; the other, an anthology of film reviews, the full text of six screenplays, photo albums, samples of annotated working scripts, excerpts from feature films and documentaries, and edited interviews with Bernal’s co-workers and associates in the film industry, theater, and political advocacy. Unfortunately Jorge never got around to figuring out how much it would all cost; perhaps he had given up on it, the book was hard enough to write, given Ishmael’s instructions to tell all. Too bad he didn’t get the kind of support he needed.

It was Jorge who got me into serious writing in the eighties, when he hired me as writer and researcher for environmentalist Junie Kalaw’s quarterly journal Alternative Futures. It was like going back to school; he made me read, he gave me books, and I learned never to write from the top of my head, or anyone else’s head, but always to go deeper, pag-isipan, mag-research.

My kids grew up with Jorge dropping in at odd times, always with a book or two for me, and later, for Katrina, too, who majored in Comparative Lit in UP upon his advice. When I was turning out my own books, he was always there for me, gracing each one with a personal note about the author.

I only wish I could have been there for him, too, in the end, even just to hold his hand, but I guess it wasn’t meant. This then is my goodbye.