When mainstream media spins the news to propagate fakery
RESIDENT Duterte has weathered so much and remains highly popular. His approval ratings are unperturbed despite the concerted efforts by his critics to paint him in a negative light, particularly in mainstream media. He continues to have the upper hand against his political enemies. Allegations of corruption are neutralized every time he sacks an erring even end up in journalists being targeted for killing.
Just days after the Rappler and Ranada brouhaha, the PhilippineDailyInquirer featured a story by Agence France-Presse on March 1headlined “Iraq, PH deadliest places for journalists, blamed the Presidential Com- (PCOO), particularly Secretary Martin Andanar for his role in allegedly mainstreaming the disinformation work of PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson and pro-Duterte major bloggers RJ Nieto and Sass Rogando Sasot.
Journalists like Nery are hellbent in painting the President as a source of misleading information, and have repeatedly assaulted not only Uson, Nieto and Sasot, but all other pro-Duterte social media bloggers as the main propagators of fakery.
Yet, Nery and his cohorts in mainstream media rarely come out swinging against the incompetence and the malicious spins of their own kind. They hide in the general cop-out of a standard operating procedure that they have editorial policies, that they have accountability mechanisms, and that they apologize when they commit mistakes.
Well, apparently such mechanisms have failed in the very newspaper that Nery writes for. If indeed a rigorous vetting mechanism for truthfulness and accuracy exists, then such news on media killings lumping the Philippines with Iraq should not have been published for the simple reason that it was a dated piece of news.
In its defense, Inquirer can say that what they posted was factual. But it has to be pointed out that the context and timing of the story’s publication were aimed at giving a misleading spin. That may not necessarily be a lie but is designed to stir confusion and make some people use what appears to be factual material as fodder for propagating a lie, where such is made to appear to be the fault of the President. What is even patently and de- liberately dishonest is when the Inquirer did not even mention that the IFJ statistics on media killings in the Philippines did not worsen, and even slightly years of President Duterte’s administration.
One of the most abused words being hurled at the President and the social media bloggers who are supporting him is that they often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of
Clearly, the President, when he gives out statistics and makes claims in his speeches, is not in any way acting as a news reporter. Asec Mocha Uson, RJ Nieto and Sass Rogando Sasot are not news reporters. Mainstream media has repeatedly emphasized that people like them, and other social media bloggers, are not legitimate news authorities. Professional journalists like John Nery have emphasized the fact that social media is not journalism, and social media blogging is not news reporting.
Hence, they are the very ones who have denied social media the technical capacity to become bearers of fake news. As nonjournalists, they simply cannot disseminate false information under the guise of news reporting. In fact, most social media people are not even acting as if they report news but are simply commenting on public issues.
Nery and his colleagues in mainstream media, on the other hand, are obliged to present facts when they report the news. They are not supposed to disseminate false and sensational information. This would include spinning what is factual in order to mislead.