Covering Duterte’s Outbursts

 

IT WAS the expletive heard around the world.

President Rodrigo Duterte made headlines again on Monday, Sept. 5, when he was reported to have cursed United States President Barack Obama in his answer to a question from media after his pre-departure speech at the Davao International Airport.  Duterte was leaving for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Vientiane, Laos.

Asked what he would say if the issue of extrajudicial killings is raised in the ASEAN Summit, Duterte unleashed a tirade against Obama and the United States. The transcript was made available by the Presidential Communications Office online.

CMFR reviewed media coverage from major broadsheets (Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin) and primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’S TV Patrol, GMA-7’s 24 Oras, TV5’s Aksyon, and CNN Philippines’ Network News) and some online news websites from Sept. 5 to 8 and to assess reportage on the matter.

Did he or didn’t he?

There seemed to be a media consensus that Duterte had directed his expletive at Obama, since most of the reports during the monitored period zeroed in on the curse word. On Sept. 6, print media published stories expanding the discussion of Duterte’s pre-departure talk.

The Star referred to a previous report in which White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, speaking on the expected meeting of the two leaders in Laos, had said that “the president is certainly not going to pull any punches in raising well-documented and relevant concerns when it comes to human rights.” This was missing in all the other reports in print or broadcast news.

It was the same case online. On Sept. 7, Rappler’s Pia Ranada reviewed the different angles taken by local and foreign media outlets: (“How media groups wrote about Duterte’s rant vs Obama”) capturing the headlines from ABS-CBNNews.com (“Duterte calls Obama a ‘son of a w****’”), GMA News Online (“Duterte on discussing human rights with Obama: Nobody has the right to lecture me”) Inquirer.net(“Duterteto Obama: Don’t lecture me on rights, PH not a US colony,” and “If Obama raises rights issues, Duterte says he will use ‘P’ word.”), and PhilStar.com (“Duterte on possible confrontation with Obama: Who is he?”).  The piece also noted the foreign press’ reporting that Duterte cursed Obama.

The television newscasts aired the video footage of Duterte’s answer to the question of whether he had prepared any line of communication to address the issue of extrajudicial killings in front of other foreign leaders. Network News’ Sept. 5 newscast was not able to bleep out the president’s expletive.

Some print and television reports cited sources who spoke about the importance of diplomacy and having to be careful; quoting sources such as Vice President Leni Robredo, political analysts Edna Co and Richard Heydarian, former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United States Lauro Baja and Duterte’s peers in both the Senate and the House.

Critical observation

Even during the campaign period, Duterte had always been a media magnet for the outrageousness of his statements and his expletives.The media have followed him closely enough, but at times seem so mesmerized by his words that they forget such journalistic protocols as fact-checking and providing context.

CMFR has noted much of these, be they expletives (“Expletives Aplenty: Duterte and the F word”), outlandish statements (“Duterte and the UN: Another Media Failure to Provide Context”) or unfounded claims (“‘Most Shabulized’: Fact-Checking Duterte’s Claim”) which the media emphasize without checking them out.

Two months into his presidency, the media know that the easily-provoked Duterte requires more thorough reporting. The media were correct to report his pre-departure curse as part of a tirade against Obama, but whether the cussword was directed against the US president or not is not as important as the offensive language used in the entire tirade against the US, which certainly has foreign policy implications.

The media should uphold that diplomacy is a necessary skill for national leaders while on an international platform, and that it is a modern instrument of international discourse that Duterte needs to learn.