The November visit of Hillary ClintonAnother opportunity missed

Briefly serious

To be fair, some questions from the journalists present and members of the audience did make an attempt to direct Clinton to serious issues.

For example, Severino asked Clinton: “You’ve called this the ‘Age of Participation’ and you in the State Department have championed the Internet and social media as tools for democratization, especially in oppressed nations. Yet your government has not been very happy with an organization like Wikileaks that has professed that it promotes transparency and accountability. Where would you draw the line in using the Internet in challenging governments including your own?”

Journalist Jessica Soho, vice-president for GMA-7’s news programs, asked: “This is your second visit as Secretary of State to our country (her first visit under the previous Arroyo administration). And so many of us can’t help but wonder: ‘Why is she visiting us so often?’ Is the United States worried about how the Philippines and other countries, and China, would resolve the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea problem?”

One of the GMA-7 celebrities also asked: “What do you think you should do about the US debt crisis and how will it affect the US in the long run?”

The venue and online audience seemed ready for more serious discussion as they asked about the US-Philippine military ties in the context of the Spratlys controversy; the regional stability and security amid the Spratlys dispute; the rise of China as a military and economic power; and Filipino immigration to the US.

But the shallow questions opened the forum and set the tone as did the outright flattery of the subject, preventing whatever substantive stream there was from rising to the surface.

What did break out into the surface in full protest mode was the evident frustration of a student activist Marjohara Tucay, the editor of the Philippine Collegian of the University of the Philippines, who was probably wondering what he was doing in such an event and made his point by declaring: “There is nothing mutual in the Mutual Defense Treaty!” He was swiftly whisked away while shouting repeatedly “Junk VFA!”

Whoever planned the forum had unexpectedly rendered a forgettable event with a most memorable and talked-about incident.

The 2009 Clinton-Media love feast

What is it with our networks?

The cheering flattery of the GMA News TV program recalled the coverage Clinton received on her visit in 2009 from ABS-CBN in its special “Hilary Clinton: The Manila Forum.” PJRR noted in its November-December 2009 issue (“The Clinton-Media Love Feast”): “Except for a handful of cases, however the media were unanimous in reporting Clinton’s visit more as a ceremony and occasion for reverence rather than scrutiny.”  The soft celebrity treatment of Clinton unites the coverage of rival networks, both of whom lent their platforms to a packaged presentation of a visiting dignitary.

“During the forum, exclamations of awe were the rule even from the media hosts themselves, veterans who seemed willing to replace their usually more critical attitude for one less probing,” PJRR wrote in 2009. The tone of the event was “more of a love feast than an effort to shed light on US foreign policy and such Philippine-relevant issues as the VFA and the continuing presence of US troops.”

Less fawning, but…

The newspapers and other TV stations were more restrained in the coverage than the GMA News TV special. One unsurprising exception was the Bulletin, which cheered Clinton in its Nov. 15 editorial the way it cheers Christmas. “We welcome United States Secretary of State and Former First Lady Hillary R. Clinton on her one-day working visit to the Philippines today. We wish her all the best and success in all her endeavors. We also wish her an enjoyable stay in the country. MABUHAY!” Bulletin wrote last Nov. 15. (all caps by the Bulletin)

The coverage even by print did not provide enough background and context on the issues that were practically calling for clarification during Clinton’s visit, including, as mentioned earlier, the MDT and the country’s inclusion in Obama’s “Partnership for Growth” Initiative.

Among the exceptions that attempted to explain some of the issues was the Nov. 17 “In the Know” Philippine Daily Inquirer sidebar explaining what the MDT is and how the Mutual Defense Board oversees the treaty. But these were exceptions; the rule was something else.

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One response to “The November visit of Hillary ClintonAnother opportunity missed”

1. Puppen says:

   January 29, 2012 at 7:21 pm

   Another Day…

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