Resigned or Fired? Uson Gets More Media Mileage

Screengrab from Inquirer.net’s Facebook page.

JEERS TO Inquirer.net for adding to the already excessive media attention on Mocha Uson with a single, anonymously-sourced story  that President Rodrigo Duterte had fired her.

The October 8 report said “a source privy to the information said President Duterte fired Uson.” Other media organizations took the cue  from this report and ran stories on the denial of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, and even Duterte  himself.

Uson announced her resignation as undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on October 3 during the Senate subfinance committee deliberations on the agency’s budget.

In a previous monitor, CMFR reminded media to “be mindful of allotting too much attention to certain figures merely because they’re controversial.”  (See related monitor: “Much ado about Uson”)

The media coverage on her resignation was prolonged enough. Running this uncorroborated report on her was completely unnecessary and may have been designed precisely to give her added media mileage.

Did Uson resign or was she fired? This is news that hardly matters at this point.