Not even two weeks after media workers in the Philippines praised US networks for cutting off US President Donald Trump as he was making unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, it is clear that while we may admire American media for it, we will not be following suit.
Individual practitioners might attempt real-time fact checks and more critical reporting, but the industry itself will not be changing how it operates any time soon. There is no incentive for it to and I don't think we could do it even if we wanted to*.
Take the case of GMA News reporter Joseph Morong, who was criticized on Twitter for, social media users said, acting like a Palace mouthpiece because he passes on whatever government officials release.
He has defended himself by saying that it's part of his job, and we can't really say it isn't. After all, don't we also praise him for his summaries of the president's pre-recorded late night addresses?
It's part of the information gathering process that, for many, is the job itself. Just writing down information and presenting that to the public. We've been doing it that way for so long, that even just pointing out how a certain government decision — like announcing a task force to deal with flooding in northern Luzon despite a government council already existing for that purpose — is seen as editorializing and making the government look bad.
It's unfair to say that that is all that Morong does — he has sparred with Salvador Panelo, the former Palace spokesman, over, among other things, a claim that Chinese ships in Philippine waters might be there without Beijing's knowledge — but it is certainly the safer and more common route for media to take.
Journalists at the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility’s Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar last week that media needs to be braver and more critical. ABS-CBN's Christian Esguerra suggested a loyalty check:
"Are we simply loyal, blind followers to, let’s say employers, or those that provide our paycheck? Or, more importantly, are we looking at the higher cost, which is our loyalty to the truth and our commitment to the citizens?"
READ: Journalists dared to be braver as attacks on press continue
Chiara Zambrano, also from ABS-CBN, added: "We have to take what was said and just shed out, peel away the spin, and tell the real story behind it."
Esguerra acknowledged that that isn't easy but that if we do it often enough and for long enough, we might be able to create a culture of pushing back against lies and bullshit.
The culture will need to and can only be built at the newsroom level, though, if at all. That will not come from the executives who actually make the big picture decisions and I am not sure it will prosper unless they buy into the idea.
Even without the ABS-CBN and Rappler cases serving as warnings, it has always been better for media to not rock the boat. Whether it makes money or not, commercial media is a business and it is bad business to irritate the government.
Worse still if you have other businesses that may be affected by increased scrutiny from regulators.
We can say that journalism's first loyalty is to citizens and mean it, but citizens don't pay our bills. Citizens will not shield us from disciplinary action if we push back a little too aggressively. Citizens, at least most citizens, don't have the numbers of newsroom managers on speed dial.
At least, not yet. Maybe one day we'll have stronger financial support from readers and viewers to be closer to independent but there is no real reason right now for newsrooms to not choose to write a story about, for example, Police Gen. Debold Sinas, the Philippine National Police chief, arriving in Cagayan for relief operations.
Even if that story has no details about what those operations are and how they will be done, that story will still get hits.
Even a bad story will get attention and even questionable profiles — like one humanizing red-tagger general Antonio Parlade — will be appreciated by a certain sector of people.
I have been attending seminars and workshops on press freedom and related issues for a few years and it has always been emphasized that we have to include the public in this fight. There has been public support for press freedom — people attended rallies in support of ABS-CBN and Rappler — but that kind of support can be done online as well.
In 2015, in a rant in response to an Esquire article lamenting the death of 'old school journalism', I gave a few suggestions to improve what the writer bemoaned as the pitiful state of online journalism, and I think these can still apply.
If you don't like how news is being presented now, don’t support it. Change the channel or read something else
Don't share stupid stories and only spread ones that you think deserve to be read
Read stories and talk to your friends about what you read. Stories are just tools, the real product is the conversations that readers and viewers will have about the issues of the day
Support quality journalism that doesn’t rely on advertising. Support quality journalism supported by advertising. Support quality journalism in general
In recent years, the newsroom has been making space for underreported stories and that has become easier over time because the stories do get read. We're not making millions from them, but they get decent page views, which would help justify the editorial decision to work on them.
I think the same can help make the case for more critical reporting. If enough people read them, then stories like that will make more sense to do.
Then maybe we can skip the "attendance" stories — articles sent in more for compliance than for actual newsworthiness — and do more in-depth reporting.
While people last week were pointing out that the loss of ABS-CBN's regional stations meant fewer updates from the provinces being battered by Typhoon Rolly, GMA News' Tina Panganiban-Perez tweeted that their network has updates.
It did not go well for her, but I get where she may have been coming from. It is disheartening when people look for stories that you've already done and that they may have missed.
Maybe, even as we call out media for its shortcomings, we could also promote good work a little more.
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From earlier this week, a story on Project NOAH — the disaster risk reduction management program that technically ended three years ago and that people say could have helped with preparations against the recent series of typhoons:
NOAH isn't gone but here's what we lost when the project ended
From even earlier, a story on Solicitor General Jose Calida backing a motion by former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for Justice Marvic Leonen to inhibit from his poll protest against Vice President Leni Robredo. I particularly like barely controlled incredulity in this line: “In a completely unrelated pleading from Marcos', Calida asked the Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to grant the motion for Leonen to inhibit from proceedings and to immediately re-raffle the poll protest.”