“Let me make it simple, walang pera ang gobyerno.”
That statement sums up what is wrong with mainstream media in the country today. The statement is outright false. Amid the ongoing battle between mainstream media on the side of the opposition and those who are pro-administration, meaning the incoming Marcos-Duterte tandem, the public interest is not being served by the lack of objectivity between the two sides.
Davila is not a newbie so one wonders why she makes irresponsible statements such as the above. Is it because of bias against the President-elect whom she addresses plainly as Mr. Marcos? Is it because she is lazy when it comes to due diligence that she is unprepared most of the time in her interviews with government officials? Or is it simply because she has a weak intellect which is incapable of understanding the various issues she should be familiarizing herself with given she is a journalist?
So what ails our journalists in general and Karen Davila in particular?
Prior to 1986, journalists, print or broadcast, or both, were not on the same level as entertainment celebrities. They were salaried employees of the network or broadsheet they were employed by. They were not product endorsers. Old school jouranlists adhered to the basic tenets of their profession which established their credibility. They were followed by their readers not for their physical attributes but for their intellect. News readers did not editorialize on air. They just read the news reports.
The return of ABS-CBN changed the broadcast media landscape. TV Patrol pioneered in the news delivered in Pilipino. Editorializing on air became the norm. Other stations followed suit. The first batch of ABS-CBN anchors became celebrities in their own right. They became talents with hefty contracts and could earn additional income from endorsement deals. Thus was born the personality cult.
Soon enough, the line was blurred between entertainment and broadcast personalities. Loren Legarda became a Senator. Noli De Castro was another and even became Vice-President under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Ted Failon became a Congressman. This never happened before. It got to the point that actors and actresses ran for elective posts and won. Look at how Robin Padilla unexpectedly topped the Senatorial race in this election cycle.
Journalists now enter their profession with the goal of becoming their own brands. Social media has made the situation exponentially worse as those who are typically covert narcissists establish their social media presence on the more high-impact platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. There are also journalist-activitists now who make their opinions known to the public and even go to the extent of taking sides as best exemplified by the just concluded election cycle.
Going back to Davila, she should know better having been under the tutelage of the late Louie Beltran when she was starting out at GMA-7. Apparently, what was imparted to her by the late His Immensity is all lost. What is more important now is how the public perceives her. But if she does not realize that she comes off as stupid not being aware of an issue that is the subject of her interview then she is not doing the public a service but a disservice because she is not educating them but dumbing them down. It does not help that she speaks with a forced American twang. Twenty becomes twenny. Diction and enunciation is basic for a broadcast journalist.
She has also “murdered” the English language on several occasions with grammatical gaffes unexpected from a “veteran” broadcaster. But what takes the cake is her posing as a crusader against fake news but actually being guilty of the same with her statement “walang pera ang gobyerno” just because of her bias against the President and his policies. Economics is an empirical science. If the government was bankrupt as she implies, then we would have been in the same boat as Sri Lanka whose economy has collapsed.
This is not the first time that Davila has been publicly called out for false statement. It is apparent that it has no effect on her since she does not even bother to admit to her acts of omission. Perhaps she is of the impression that she is not accountable because if the network executives do not hold her accountable, why should she bother with public opinion for as long as she is validated by the circles she moves in which are identified with the opposition.
Fake news and disinformation goes both ways despite mainstream media’s insistence that they are truth-peddlers while the Marcos-Duterte combine are all about lies. This has been dispeled by the 31M Filipinos who voted for the Marcos-Duterte tandem. It does not appear that mainstream media or the opposition, are cognizant of this reality. They both suffer from the lack of credibility and the more they lose credibility, the deeper they descend into ignominious oblivion.
Comments