Truth, not trolls

It is no surprise that Duterte and Trump have triumphed in the elections of 2016; their notoriety has been largely created and fueled by the social media that batten on people’s penchant for sex and violence, notorious behavior, hate speech and crass celebrityhood.

All of this violates news media’s canons of good taste, but the press has long ago ceded its role of truth-seeking and proper information handling to social media. Nowadays the news media don’t cover the news; they cover social media. They don’t cover the truth; they cover “trendings” and trolls.

The same mercenary attitude characterizes television’s coverage in real time of President Duterte’s vicious afternoon soliloquies in which he gets to harangue and verbally murder everyone except himself.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas has not been responsible with the self-serving freedom accorded it to regulate itself; it has not remotely come up with guidelines to prevent itself from becoming a vehicle of abusive presidential speech.

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board and the National Telecommunications Commission have not penalized Duterte and broadcast stations for foul speech on air. The news media as a whole have allowed Duterte to literally get away with murder by allowing him to seethe, bluster and cry slaughter while refusing questions from the press and leaving journalists to content themselves with the gibberish and inanities of Andanar, Panelo and Abello (“APA”—Tagalog for waffle).

News or social, the media are an accomplice to genocide.