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 Jeers to Manila Bulletin for demonstrating so well how a newspaper can be used as a business tool. On its March 1 front page and along side its lead story about the large anti-Arroyo rally in Makati the previous day, the Bulletin reported the joint birthday celebration of former President Fidel Ramos and his wife Amelita “Ming” Ramos at the Manila Hotel (“Ramoses celebrate their birthdays jointly at Manila Hotel”).
Ignoring other issues that deserve front-page treatment, the story had little news value, except for the fact that the celebrants were former Malacañang occupants and that Manila Hotel is owned by Bulletin publisher Emilio Yap.
 Cheers to The Manila Times for discussing the government’s efforts to develop the biofuel industry in a series of reports from March 2 to 4. The series tackled the pros and cons in developing the industry, including possible food shortages, the lack of preparedness by oil companies to meet the requirements set by the Biofuels Act, and a history of the biofuels industry in the country.
Jeers to The Philippine Star for focusing on what is “sexy” while forgetting to include what is important in a March 11 news report. In its story, “Jamby vs Pia: Cat fight erupts anew at Senate,” the Star reported the long-standing feud between senators Ma. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal and Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano which had persisted till the previous day as both “questioned their respective inabilities to perform their duties as lawmakers.”
According to the report, the feud erupted again when Cayetano wrote Madrigal, chair of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, “inquiring about the status of the bills on the Magna Carta for Women, of which (Cayetano) was one of the authors.”
The rest of the report discussed the word war between the two senators, the latest in the continuing feud between Madrigal and Cayetano since the beginning of the 14th Congress.
What the Star did not provide was a background on the Magna Carta for Women and why several women’s groups are pushing for the passage of the Magna Carta. The proposed Magna Carta, which failed to get passed in the 12th and 13th Congress, seeks to guarantee the basic rights of women and provide them with necessary protection against discrimination.
Cheers to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for extensively tackling biopiracy and its companion issues. The Inquirer’s “Talk of the Town” section discussed the issues of access and/or control over common biological resources, the patenting of biodiversity and genetic resources, and the sharing of commercial products from extracted genetic resources (“Battle over biological resources,” Feb. 24). The Inquirer supported the story with a sidebar which defined biopiracy as the “theft of biological resources.” It also provided a discussion on cases happening in different countries, including the Philippines.
The Inquirer further discussed the incidents of biopiracy and its effect on the country in a March 2 report about how a tribe in Mindanao and a farmers’ community in Bohol are finding ways to protect their remaining biological resources and traditional crops (“Tribe, farmers guard against biopiracy”).
Jeers to BusinessWorld columnist Bernardo Lopez for using his column in a clear case of conflict of interest. Lopez used his March 12 column to write on his daughter’s academic problems at the University of the Philippines (UP). Defending allegations that his daughter, a summa cum laude candidate, cheated in an exam, he wrote that there is a “great divide” happening in the university. On one side are students from private schools who have better communication skills and a better command of English, Lopez wrote, and on the other, those who do not. All are bright and talented, he added, except that since perhaps most of those who came from private schools always speak English and probably exude a certain kind of confidence, others hate them. “More so my daughter Bernadette,” he wrote.
The column was all about his daughter’s problem. He also published excerpts from his daughter’s letter to the university president, the UP Diliman chancellor, and the college dean. Lopez also provided readers with a link to his daughter’s blog site, which had the full version of the letter (“UP’s Great Divide”).
Cheers to BusinessMirror for discussing how changes in Ifugao culture are related to the current state of the Rice Terraces. Reporting that “safeguarding the spectacular rice terraces of the Philippines begins with preserving the culture of those who created them,” it cited diminishing efforts to revive the rice terraces due to changes in Ifugao culture (“Tradition in Peril: Saving Ifugao Heritage and the dwindling ‘Mumbaki’ (Native High Priests),” Feb. 19).
Jeers to The Philippine Star for failing to ask the right questions on the media handlers House Speaker Prospero Nograles has hired. The Star reported March 4 that Nograles has hired four media handlers to replace former journalist Noel Albano, who headed the public relations and information department during the speakership of former Palace ally Pangasinan Rep. Jose De Venecia. “With them working for my team, I am confident we will achieve a great degree of success in our image-building campaign for the House of Representatives. I should expect positive results in my first 100 days as Speaker,” the Star quoted Nograles as saying.
But the Star did not explain why Nograles had hired four media handlers when he could have hired just one as in De Venecia’s term. Given the costs of hiring four people to do a job previously done by just one person, the Star could have also asked if funds for the salaries of the four image builders were available and from what source. The report said that Nograles did not reveal the salaries of the four media handlers, but that according to Star sources, the four would each be getting at least P50,000 a month. The Star did not also check Albano’s salary as a possible indicator of the salaries the four would be getting (“Speaker hires 4 media handlers to improve House image, p. 8”).
Jeers to the Manila Bulletin for publishing advertorials in a “false cover” in its Feb. 26 issue. Using the paper’s typical layout, the front page ran advertorials about a detergent. In their Feb. 14 issue, the Bulletin and another broadsheet, The Philippine Star, had also printed false covers about a shampoo and a toothpaste. Readers cannot be blamed for thinking they were reading legitimate news reports rather than ads, since these were not only laid out on the front page; they also used the same type and heads as regular news stories.
Jeers to the Manila Standard Today for biased and incomplete reporting. A March 10 news report about the violent dispersal of protesters focused on the injured policemen, failing to note that there were also a number of protesters who were badly hurt during the incident (“Cops nab unruly rallyists”). It did not even try to get the side of the rallyists.
The report also lacked important facts. Merely referring to them as “rallyists”, the report did not mention that those dispersed by the police were workers from Southern Tagalog who were staging a protest march calling attention to the allegedly intense trade union repression in their region.
Cheers to ANC for showing that a breaking news report can be fast and complete at the same time. In its March 24 breaking story about former President Corazon Aquino’s colon cancer, the newscast immediately provided background on the disease—a laudable departure from the common breaking news stories.
Further providing background on the disease, ANC also interviewed a cancer specialist. But the questioning was not as commendable. Although the doctor said he was unaware of the former president’s medical history, not being her personal physician, he was still asked to speculate on such matters as from which side of the former president’s family the disease could have come from and what could have caused Aquino to get the disease.
Jeers to IBC Express Balita for engaging in product advertising during a newscast—again.
Last March 4, it was multinational giant Nestlé which was at the receiving end of Express Balita’s generosity as the news program reported the launching of the food company’s new green tea product. Discussed in the commercial plug were the product’s medicinal properties and where it can be bought.
PJR Reports has previously noted Express Balita’s tendency to cede news air time to advertisers. Among the items that have been hawked in the government-sequestered station are condoms, pizzas, liquor products, and antiseptic mouthwash.
Cheers to MindaNews for exploring an important angle in the legality of the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) and the Financial Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA) under the 1995 Philippine Mining Act (http://www.mindanews. com/index. php?option= com_content&task= view&id=3959&Itemid=160). Instead of merely reporting a picket protest as an event itself, the March 7 story “Residents picket mining firm’s office in Mati” provided supporting details explaining why the current environmental situation in Barangay Macambol, Mati, Davao Oriental led the residents into filing community petitions against the MPSA and FTAA. It explained the delicate ecological balance that surrounds the mining site and the indigenous people’s claim to their ancestral lands. |
