Newsroom oversight?

JEERS TO ABS-CBNnews.com for a false report on the reaction of University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB) students to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s September 15, 2015  visit to UPLB.

ABS-CBN News reported that the students had heckled Binay and called him “trapo” (traditional politician).  But it turned out that what they were shouting was “sample,” is a  coined by a word coinced by ABS-CBN 2’s own noontime variety show which means “show us (a sample of) your talent.”

The network apologized for the error immediately after an open letter by the UPLB University Student Council (USC)  disputing the accuracy of the report circulated online.

On September 15, Vice President Jejomar Binay visited UPLB as a resource person in a forum on transparency and good governance. The event was sponsored by the Division of Social Sciences (DSS) of the UPLB-College of Arts and Sciences.

Following the event, ABS-CBNnews.com posted on its Facebook page on September 16  video footage supposedly showing UPLB students shouting “trapo” before Binay started his speech. The video caption said, “LISTEN: UPLB students shout ‘trapo’ as Vice President Binay starts his forum yesterday. And the vice president’s reaction? Watch.”

The news website claimed on September 17  that “VP Binay felt disrespected at UPLB forum.”  The story reported the question and answer part of the forum, but also included the statement  that “The (Vice President’s) response drew loud cheers from the audience of mostly UPLB students, many of whom had chanted ‘trapo’ at the start of Binay’s speech.”

Later that day, the post was edited and the headline changed to “VP Binay: I enjoyed UPLB forum.” The video caption was also edited.

The earlier posts had angered UPLB students. Speaking in their behalf, the UPLB USC had released an open letter to ABS-CBN management accusing the network of releasing a “misleading” report.  The USC said that the students were not shouting “trapo” but “sample.” According to the letter, “There was an intermission number by some of the faculty members of the DSS before VP Binay’s speech, thus the chanting.”

In the open letter of the UPLB USC updated September 18, the council said that “these acts of unethical journalism by ABS-CBN have inflicted a negative perception among UPLB students, with misinformed netizens and readers treating and tagging UPLB students as ‘unmannered,’ and of ‘low breeding.’ It is insulting and unacceptable on the part of the Iskolar ng Bayan to be so portrayed by ABS-CBN’s recently published articles. Even though these articles have already been ‘updated,’ they do not deny (sic) the fact that ABS-CBN committed acts damaging to the students of UP Los Baños.”

The UPLB USC also demanded that ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs  release a public apology addressed to the students of UP Los Baños.

The ABS-CBN News website published a statement on September 19. The statement read:

“ABS-CBN News expresses its sincerest apologies to the students of UP Los Banos for the errors committed by ABS-CBNnews.com in 2 articles about the forum of UP Los Banos students with Vice President Jejomar Binay last September 15.

“In our effort to provide a more comprehensive coverage of the forum, one of our writers mistook the word ‘sample’ for ‘trapo.’

“We immediately corrected this right after we were alerted about the mistake on September 16, 2015.

“We will be taking disciplinary steps against those responsible for this oversight.

“Please note that there were other articles uploaded on our website about the event, including these below, in the hope of providing other perspectives about the forum.

“LOOK: The UPLB students who dared to ask Binay
“Binay was not heckled, claims lawyer Harry Roque.”

Twitter user Guien Garma (@GuienEPGarma) and JP Alampay (@johnpolven) and Facebook user Samantha Javier flagged CMFR this report.

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