“IT Experts”: Disingenuous Use of Single, Anonymous Source

Volunteers monitor the transmission of votes at the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Command Center during the unofficial quick count of the election results. Photo by Lito Ocampo

JEERS TO The Standard for running a one-sided report based on unverified information from a single anonymous source.

On May 23, 2016, The Standard published  “IT experts: Servers shipped to Laguna to rig vote” on its front page. The report quoted unnamed “IT experts” who claimed that the Aquino administration  ordered them  to “fix” Comelec servers presumably to  favor administration candidates. According to these sources,  30 servers were shipped to a warehouse in Laguna to generate about 2.65 million votes for four provinces. The report also mentioned the claim made by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, which was reported in other media, that at least eight senatorial candidates benefitted from the sale of votes from Comelec insiders.

The report cited as its main source a group called “MM,” a “group of IT experts assigned to the Comelec National Technical Support Center in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.” The story made it appear that they talked to several members of the group, which would justify the use of “IT experts” in its headline and in the story itself. It also implied that the “IT experts” exposed the alleged rigging as a group when the story relied only on the statements made by one of the supposed experts. The report did not clarify if this expert was speaking for the group.  Without giving the identification of any individual, the story sounded disingenuous by using the plural “IT experts” not only in the headline but in narrating its allegation;  while using the singular “IT source” or “IT expert” when quoting the source.

The story was one-sided because it did not have the side of the Comelec and Smartmatic, and The Standard did not say if it tried to talk to any of them. It also did not disclose that the Chairman of the MST Management Inc. is Philip Romualdez, a cousin of vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is contesting the election results favoring his rival, Rep. Leni Robredo.

While public concern may justify the use of confidential sources, proper corroboration is still necessary for the sake of accuracy and fairness. Relying on a single anonymous source, especially on a controversial issue like electoral fraud, not only compromises truth-telling; it also leads the public to form opinions based on unverified information.