Her name isn't Toni Gazette
It is a little much to expect journalistic rigor where none is promised
Welcome back to Slow News Days, a hopefully weekly newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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Every now and then, a social media post that wonders aloud whether Ferdinand Marcos was more than just a dictator who used the country's legal system to stay in power, rule by decree, and spit on human rights under the cover of saving the Philippines from communism.
More even than also being a plunderer.
In 2016, it was the Official Gazette with an "agnostic" birthday post for the ousted dictator that celebrated his political career and noted that he "stepped down from the presidency to avoid bloodshed" in 1986. This was probably around the same time that he was ousted from Malacañang because people had already had enough.
Pretty much every year, it's the Manila Bulletin, perhaps in celebration of how they were allowed to operate during Martial Law or possibly out of the misplaced nostalgia we all have for days gone by.
But also this year, it's host (and vlogger and influencer?) Toni Gonzaga, who interviewed the dictator's son Ferdinand Jr. on her Toni Talks web show.
Much has been written about Gonzaga's need to be responsible for how she uses her influence — to not help rehabilitate the Marcoses, for example — and this is valid.
Much has also been written about how "netizens" are divided over the issue, which is truly the least imaginative angle for any story and a million times less valid.
Gonzaga and her supporters have pointed out that it's her show and she can feature whoever she wants. And, you know what? They are correct. That also means that people can react to her choice of interview subject and interview style however they want barring resorting to harassment and violence.
And that is where it ends. Gonzaga has no stated obligation to me or to anybody else. At least, not in the same way that the media and the Official Gazette have.
I do not think her show made any promises of seeking any sort of truth — especially not about Martial Law, which people have written and reported extensively about since Martial Law.
We do, though. Or we at least promise "a practical and functional form of truth."
Which is why we bear a greater responsibility than she does. Certainly a greater responsibility to discuss the issue beyond "oh, look at this online phenomenon."
Deodorizing the Marcos years is an online trend, sure, but not in the same way that a TikTok challenge or a cat doing human things is.
If we're going to look at Gonzaga's "neutrality", we might as well look into how our idea of being neutral and fair and balanced compares.
The defense that she also interviewed other politicians and therefore cannot be called biased is uncomfortably close to what many of us believe what being unbiased looks like.
We've certainly unquestionably picked up statements as detached from reality (or from having any actual merit) from, for example, chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo. We've even made social media art cards about them.
Jay Sonza Bot — that collection of ones and zeros pretending to be a former broadcaster — can get space on our outlets just because he is kooky and online and always good for a laugh (or, sometimes, a libel complaint).
Closer to the topic of Gonzaga's online show, Ferdinand Jr. 'interviewed' former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile — defense minister to his father — in 2018 about the Martial Law years and we pretty much let that slide.
We put scare quotes around absurd claims like how nobody was arrested back then for their political beliefs and called it a day.
It was, like the furor over Gonzaga's interview, an online phenomenon that divided netizens but ultimately all views are valid and everyone is a little right and a little wrong. Haters gonna hate and all that.
In a related ongoing discussion on how to handle President Rodrigo Duterte's recorded rants, journalists have been arguing about whether to fact-check the claims in real time, transcribe what he says and then maybe include context in the final report or just ignore them altogether.
One senior journalist argues that that is up to the editorial judgment of the reporters and their newsrooms.
Prescribing how to treat information — even if it is to interrogate problematic claims — would take away that editorial prerogative and chip away at freedom of the press.
There is something to that. Reporters Without Borders notes in its recent World Press Freedom Index that governments across Southeast Asia have used the threat posed by "fake news" and the need to address it to justify laws and regulations later used to penalize criticism of those governments and their pandemic responses.
But we have promised self-regulation and higher standards as arguments against government interference and have to consider how we have been using that editorial prerogative.
If we don't, all this hand wringing about how Gonzaga did it wrong is really just to help make us feel better about ourselves or worse, just more content for us to pump out to get netizens divided.
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Not a gawa-gawa lang ng mga Illuminati, Edward Snowden writes about conspiracies and conspiracy theories:
The greatest conspiracies are open and notorious — not theories, but practices expressed through law and policy, technology, and finance. Counterintuitively, these conspiracies are more often than not announced in public and with a modicum of pride… These conspiracies order, and disorder, our lives; and yet they can’t compete for attention with digital graffiti about pedophile Satanists in the basement of a DC pizzeria.
Speaking of conspiracies, the pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court has authorized an investigation into extrajudicial killings in the Philippines from as far back as 2011, when we joined the court. “What happens now?” Rappler Talk asks and tries to answer.
Also, in case you missed it, this Washington Post piece looks at the risks (many!) that BPO workers are exposed to during the pandemic and the ways (not as many!) their companies are trying to keep them safe: ‘Your call was important to Glen Palaje. It may have cost him his life.’
A little older is this story about how provinces outside Metro Manila have to endure the restrictions placed on ‘NCR Plus’ while also not being given priority in things like vaccination.