I joined a Twitter Space the other day which had Philippine media elites in attendance. This was like the Top Gun of PH journalism. Roby Alampay, Ging Reyes, Inday Espina Varona, Regine Cabato, Jacque Manabat, Regina Lay, Miguel Camus, Carolyn Bonquin and Camille Elemia, to name those on the screenshot I took.
The topic discussed was “Did the media fail us post-EDSA.” Obviously this is in reference to Marcos’ win last May 9. It is hard to think that media also did not believe the surveys and were hoping that they were wrong but the surveys were on the money and Robredo got a thrashing at the polls on election day.
It was shocking, at least on my part, to hear that these “journalists” did not have a clue as to why Robredo lost. But more striking was the fact that they were more like a bunch of Robredo supporters doing a post-mortem of their failed strategy, rather than journalists discussing their trade.
It don’t take a genius to figure out they are all anti-Marcos and pro-Robredo. The problem is, they do not find anything wrong with this. They have completely forgotten that one of the basic tenets of journalism is objectivity.
The basic question is they had for themselves is why is it, that despite their best efforts to put Marcos down, he still won and won with a huge margin against Robredo. What went wrong?
The newsroom heads such as Alampay, Reyes and Varona were all about listening to the younger reporters such as Jacque Manabat and Rambo Talambong, relating their experience with using TikTok as a platform to deliver the news. Apparently, the older journos are tech challenged. Of course, it is hard for them to gyrate or act in front of the camera which is what is usually the practice on TikTok but since majority of the youth are on this platform, it will eventually come to this if they want to catch the youth’s attention.
The Marcos campaign tapped TikTok micro-influencers extensively. There was plenty of content about the Marcos’, from Imelda all the way down to little Aimee, who is midde-aged now. There was also a flood of content on the Duterte’s; from PRRD down to Kitty. There were plenty of behind-the-scenes videos of Marcos and Duterte and the UniTeam at their campaign sorties. If you want memory and name-recall, TikTok defnitely is better than Instagram.
The more interesting takeway from the Space was these journalists continued belief that it is part of their duty to take the Marcos’ down. After thirty-six years, both senior and junior “journalists” are at a loss because Marcos Jr. just won the Presidency with what will be recorded as the largest winning margin in electoral history.
These journalists believe that their version of the “truth” is the truth. They are the “good” guys as opposed to the Marcos’ being the “bad” guys. But is it not the public who is to judge and that the judgment should stand in a democracy?
In 1986, there was no internet. No social media. You wanted news you relied on print and broadcast media, radio and television. As a college student, I had no idea what went on in the provinces. I had not been to any province outside of Luzon. I had been to Hong Kong once. That was it. My trip to Hong Kong made me think about why what I saw there could not be replicated in the country. But at this point, my educaiton was limited so I could not answer my own question.
Today, the youth and millennials have easier access to information with the internet. But this is not true for all Filipinos. The poorest of the poor in the poorest provinces is proof that we have not succeeded in lifting Filipinos out of poverty. We would not be in this situation if the Roman Catholic Church was not against birth control and reproductive health. In 1986, the population stood at 55.76M. Today it is at 110.8M.
The low income class as per the PSA is 58.4% of the total population. This is equivalent to 64M Filipinos. The total number of registered votes in 2021 was 67.3M, inclusive of 1.6M overseas Filipinos, either workers or migrants with dual citizenship. This means 36M Filipinos belong to the low income class or the D with E representing the poor.
Data from GSMA Intelligence shows that there were 156.5 million cellular mobile connections in the Philippines at the start of 2022.
However, note that many people around the world make use of more than one mobile connection – for example, they might have one connection for personal use, and another one for work – so it’s not unusual for mobile connection figures to significantly exceed figures for total population.
GSMA Intelligence’s numbers indicate that mobile connections in the Philippines were equivalent to 140.0 percent of the total population in January 2022.
The number of mobile connections in the Philippines increased by 6.9 million (+4.6 percent) between 2021 and 2022.
Pulse Asia Survey Pre-May 9
The data as presented above, would show that there are both equal chances that the claim of “networked disinformation” by the opposition is true but there is also credence to the claim that the same holds true for mainstream media which has an obvious bias against Marcos.
Mainstream Media Networked Disinformation
What the journalists do not accept is the fact that in the last survey of Pulse Asia before May 9, Marcos garnered more than 50% voter preference across all economic classes. The D and E will not read Rappler or any of the other mainstream media outlets. Their main source of news is the regional and local radio stations and social media platforms if they have a smartphone and connectivity. In the most remote areas, it would be the local radio station, if there is one.
The Marcos’ would have been back in power as early as 1992 if only Imelda had not run against Danding Cojuangco and split the Marcos Loyalist vote. On the side of the then administration, those who were relevant pre-martial law all ran for President; Salvador Laurel, Jovito Salonga and Ramon Mitra. Cory anointed Ramos and it was he who won but with only 23% of the vote.
Subsequently, there was Erap in 1998 and GMA in 2004, both with less than 50% of the vote, which always left room for the Yellows to question the results. Interestingly, both Erap and GMA were the subject of black propaganda of corruption allegations. Erap was convicted by the Sandiganbayan but pardoned by GMA. The latter was found innocent of the charges against her in 2018 which enabled her to mount a political comeback and be the kingmaker for the 2022 election.
The simple point is despite the efforts of mainstream media to control the narrative, they failed because Filipinos had an alternative in social media and independent content creators which definitely made a difference. These journalists are tone-deaf like the opposition and they still refuse to accept the reality that they do not have a monopoly on the flow of information and the narratives like they used to. This was what Duterte used to win the Presidency in 2016. The electorate got to know about him through social media.
They do not even bother to discuss the most glaring disconnect of all. Rodrigo Duterte has been the subject of their attacks for the past five years but he will step down from office on June 30 with the highest approval and trust rating of any President since surveys were institutionalized as a measure of the President’s performance. Duterte built up his political capital with results and despite claims to the contract, his adminstration set its direction with its 0 – 10 point socio-economic agenda at the start of his term. This cemented the victory of the Marcos-Duterte ticket early on after their tandem was finalized. The surveys were consistent in predicting a majority win for the first time in any post-EDSA election.
Mainstream media cannot deny that they use a network as well. Think of how the resource persons for articles in the foreign press such as Bloomberg, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, The Guardian and CNN, to name a few, are all personalities identified with them such as Richard Heydarian, JC Punongbayan, Cleve Arguelles, Zy-Na Suzara and others who form the core of the civil society network of NGOs, most of which receive grants from foreign sources.
This is the reason why Filipinos have little or no trust at all in mainstream media. This decline began in 2001 when they ganged up on Erap. It was repeated again in 2012 with the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. You can also tell that they pulled their punches when it come to events which reinforced the ineptitude and incompetence of the Aquino administration.
We now have the unique situation where it is Philippine media up against the Filipino people. If every journalist was to adhere to the ethics of their profession, this is the public which they should be serving. Unfortunately, it is not only the tenet of objectivity which the have violated.
They have violated what is supposed to be inviolable in their profession and that is they should never become the news.
Comments