Penalty for fakery
While the electorate votes with their ballots on the performance of politicians, the Fourth Estate, a self-declared republic of sorts, is voted on through ratings and rankings.
Supply and demand remains operant in both the political and media arenas. In politics, the number of choices can force the electorate to settle for lesser evils where no acceptable candidate is offered. The same with media. Sans effective competition, perspectives on the news are limited. Captive markets are created and are forced to endure bias, partisanship, prejudice and, worse, fake news.
Media, while afforded greater elbow room with constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, compels specific statutes to address excesses such as fake news and bias, sloppy research, validation and verification and a whole slew of aberrations sorely unchecked by the libel laws.
Should we add non-traditional checks and balances on frivolous and irresponsible reporting and seditious speech, then in addition to ratings, these added benchmarks with attendant penalties likewise measure media’s credibility.
Unfortunately the abusive remain among media. They continue to threaten the truth, confident that they can taint any accusation whether media-related or not, as media persecution. Like midget pagan anitos and Bulul they fancy themselves revered and worshipped deity.
Take the case of a local news site accused of securities fraud, tax evasion and possibly, violations of the anti-dummy statutes. While the charges have gone through requisite due process, affording the accused rights and opportunities to respond as well as a free podium to counterattack, they still claim political harassment.
It’s a testament to inherent dishonesty. Such fraud and fakery beyond and beneath its charge is not limited to our shores. Across the Pacific where constitutional amendments guarantee free speech above other rights, fakery and the loss of credibility infect even international networks a few offhandedly consider slick and prestigious.
Credibility is also measured by bad behavior. Recently a Cable News Network (CNN) contributor and once a daily source among its primetime anchors was sentenced to extended jail time without the benefit of bail. It’s unfortunate. Had he not been a convicted crook, pornstar lawyer Michael Avenatti might have been a feather in CNN’s cap had he pursued his ambition to run for the presidency.
In another instance, just recently, CNN superstar Anderson Cooper, while covering New York’s New Year festivities alongside another with whom he had a failed romantic relationship, was visibly drunk and on the verge of throwing up on air. Previous to that Anderson’s primetime partner Chris Cuomo was caught on camera violently cursing and challenging bystanders. In last week’s CNN-sponsored Democratic Debates, peer networks partial to the Democratic Party had taken to social media to condemn a CNN anchor’s partiality that was “tantamount to calling (a candidate) a liar.”
To its misfortune, bias and fake news come with a hefty price tag. Despite its continuously falling ratings among the American viewing public especially during the evening primetime when the network cannot even attract a million viewers much less rank among the highly rated, it will have to cough up a record amount as penalty for its folly.
The amount needed to settle one case of fakery and falsehoods not only trumps another loss it has to face but impacts more on bottom-scraping credibility. One involves its major reason for being — news reporting and commentary. CNN is settling a $800 million lawsuit it lost to a young Catholic student the network had continuously spun as having taunted and intimidated ethnic protesters.
The other lost lawsuit involves corporate fair-play in treating its own employees. CNN is dishing out as much as $76 million in backpay it owes its employees after a decade-long case brought against it by its own people.
Cumulatively, all these reveal a dark underside for a network that fashions itself the go-to American cable
news network among Filipinos.
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To its misfortune, bias and fake news come with a hef ty price tag. Despite its continuously falling ratings among the American viewing public… it will have to cough up a record amount as penalty for its folly.
“Sans effective competition, perspectives on the news are limited. Captive markets are created and are forced to endure bias, partisanship, prejudice and, worse, fake news.