Lady in distress
IT was not pretty. In fact the sight of the lady journalist in distress over the accreditation of social media bloggers to the Malacañang Press Corps was downright ugly. Her sense of entitlement seemed to blindside her to the real issues involved.
She cried unfair that she had to work her way from trainee to beat reporter before being accredited by Malacañang while bloggers get accredited just like that. She forgot that this is not an accreditation requirement of Malacañang but a hiring policy of her employer.
She would be right to say that mainstream media is against accreditation if by that she means Manila-based journalists who look down on provincial and social media journalists. The fact of the matter is many provincial and social media journalists are mainstream by a more inclusive definition of the term. The only reason they are not is that they do not fit Manilabased media’s narrow definition.
It was selfrighteous of her to assume that Communications Secretary Martin Andanar is the cause of Malacañang’s relationship problems with mainstream media and that, therefore, he should take care of them first. From where I stand mainstream media’s biases and feelings of self-importance are equally to blame for the problem.
I would, therefore, not be surprised if Mr. Andanar in fact sees accreditation of social media bloggers as part of the solution. With bloggers in the loop we can have a panoramic view of the government picture in full technicolor, so to speak, in contrast to the black and white picture mainstream media are projecting.
The core issue here is press freedom which, the lady forgets, does not belong to media alone, mainstream or not, but to sources and readers of news. Malacañang has the freedom to express itself in the fullest and best way it thinks possible. In today’s age of the internet, the full flavor of the truth cannot be obtained without the contribution of social media bloggers.
Besides, the only way to keep bloggers out of the loop is to abolish the internet. That, of course, is impossible. Hence, they might as well be allowed in under certain qualifying conditions. Traditional media could dispute these qualifying requirements for bloggers. But the former have no argument against accrediting the latter.
In the final analysis, the issue boils down to the people’s freedom to choose whose news and opinions to believe. Official accountability and transparency dictate that people are presented all sides of an issue by all possible sources to give full sway to this freedom.
In this era of the worldwide web, news sources include bloggers. No offense meant to the lady in distress but that’s the way it works now in the global village.