Media In Focus: Watching The Watchdogs

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On Sept. 14, in the words of this paper (Philippine Daily Inquirer), “Senators led by former press freedom champion Joker Arroyo took turns browbeating messengers of bad news for allegedly tarnishing the country’s image with their reporting on the botched hostage rescue.” Eight Hong Kong nationals were massacred during the incident inside a bus parked in the Quirino Grandstand.

There were two issues at stake at the media hearings, although Arroyo attempts to make them one and the same. The first was the media’s lapses during the hostage crisis. On Aug. 23, news networks aired the crisis live on national television, making available information to the hostage-taker via a television inside the bus. ABS-CBN aired a blow-by-blow account of the situation, including assault positions, as well as live footage of the hostage-taker’s brother being arrested. TV5 reporter Erwin Tulfo, with fellow Radyo Mo Nationwide commentator Michael Rogas tied up the hostage-taker’s phone line in an increasingly tense 45-minute radio interview that ended with gunshots.

“We just wanted to talk to the hostage-negotiator first. We did not know that there were negotiations. We did not know that he would get angry. We were thrown into a situation that escalated into something that made even us nervous.”

It is true that the press failed to regulate itself, aggravating the situation for an already inept police force. There is a limit to press freedom, and even the lowest standard demands a respect for human life. Since the massacre, broadcast networks have committed to reform. GMA Network vice president for news programs, Jessica Soho, acknowledged that they could have performed better. ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs head Maria Ressa said during the hearing that they never expected that authorities would not be in control of the crisis situation, and said that belief was their failure as well. The concession was clear: inept leadership does not excuse journalistic irresponsibility.

Read full text: The Joker by Patricia Evangelista, Inquirer.net

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"Maybe it is the media that has us divided." --Laura Bush

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” --Malcolm X

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.” --William Bernbach

“All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.” --Marshall McLuhan

“The media tends to report rumors, speculations, and projections as facts... How does the media do this? By quoting some 'expert'... you can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything.” --Peter McWilliams

“The media's power is frail. Without the people's support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch.” --Corazon C. Aquino

“For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship's captain complaining about the sea.” --Enoch Powell

“In day-to-day commerce, television is not so much interested in the business of communications as in the business of delivering audiences to advertisers. People are the merchandise, not the shows. The shows are merely the bait.” --Les Brown

“People in the media say they must look at the president with a microscope. Now, I don't mind a microscope, but boy, when they use a proctoscope, that's going too far.” --Richard M. Nixon

"Whoever controls the media, controls the mind." --Jim Morrison

"Ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause while the hijack lasted." --Margaret Thatcher

"These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over." --Van Morrison

"The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." --Pope John Paul II
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Ang Dasal, Sana Maghilum Ang Sugat Ng Nakaraan

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A single oversight
Should not make you feel
All the anger inside your heart
We did not wish for this to happen

We understand that you've been hurt
All we're asking for is forgiveness
As we extend our hands to you in goodwill

We wish you'd open your heart once again
We feel your sadness and grief
Now we plead for us to be heard
Our apologies we pray you'd accept

We join our hands in prayer for forgiveness
Waiting for a new day to come
Now we plead for us to be heard
Our apologies we pray you'd accept

We are a loving race
Loyal heroes of our land
Believing in the good hearts of our people
Condemning what is wrong

-- Ryan Enriquez
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There Are Days And There Are Nights

Palace: President cannot remain 'worried' over hostage incident
GMA News TV

Malacañang said President Benigno Simeon Aquino III remains "concerned" over the hostage crisis in Manila last week but can no longer afford to remain worried about the consequences of the incident.

Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma said while Aquino is still concerned about the hostage incident, he also has to focus on the other problems facing the nation.

“Di pwede sa worrying mode palagi ang isang leader, kailangan nakatutok ang attention sa darating sa kinabukasan. Kailangan naka-focus sa paghanap ng solution, di magiging productive kung palaging worried," Coloma said in an interview on dzXL radio.

(A leader cannot remain in worrying mode indefinitely. He must keep his attention on other problems. He must focus on finding solutions to these problems. Worrying will mess up his productivity.)

On August 23, a dismissed senior police inspector, Rolando Mendoza, hijacked a bus in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila and held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos. After an 11-hour standoff, Mendoza and eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

“Siguro ang tamang salita ay concerned sapagka’t dapat naman ay yung ganung concern dahil seryoso ang kaganapang nangyari. Pero I don’t think tama ang salitang worried. Ito ay bahagi ng hamon na kinakaharap," he said.

(Perhaps the right word to describe Aquino is concerned. He remains concerned over such a serious situation. But I don’t think it is right to say he remains worried because such things are part of the challenges he faces as a leader.)

Coloma said the Aquino government has already taken steps to heal the wounds between the Philippines and Hong Kong after last week's hostage crisis.

“Ang importante dito ang maging makatwiran at makatarungan ang mga aksyon ng pangulo, di dinadaan sa pabilisan lamang (What is important is that the president’s moves are proper and not necessarily rushed)," he said.

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The world keeps on turning.

What Picture Would It Paint?

Hundreds of photos of events of Cory's life put together side by side to form a mosaic that when viewed from a distance the individual details of each photos seem to melt and blend to form a single large image of a familiar portrait of Cory. What a remarkable and impressive work of art.

But if all of our people's individual stories could be put together in one big mosaic, I'm just wondering what image perhaps would it paint?