Star: The truth can be bought?
Amid the political tension gripping the country following rumors that the government intends to put the Philippines under a virtual martial law, three Catholic bishops of the group Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME) held a prayer rally in Mendiola. The three prelates had previously called for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign after the “Hello, Garci” crisis.
Prominent anti-Arroyo personalities attended the rally, such as former Vice-Pres. Teofisto Guingona, activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, and TV host Oscar Orbos.
A face-off between the police and rallyists at the corner of C.M. Recto Street and San Sebastian Street ended the procession on a low note. Following the government’s “no-permit, no-rally” policy, the police blasted rallyists trying to get to San Beda and St. Jude churches to pray with a water cannon to disperse them.
While the media were having a major news coup on the dispersed all-star rally, curiously, The Philippine Star was apparently looking elsewhere.
A day after the dispersal, there was no Star report in the incident. Other papers, like the conservative Manila Bulletin and The Manila Times reported the water canon incident. The Manila Standard Today managed to publish two photographs of the water-blasting incident on page 2 to complement their headline story on the rally, which was actually stale already since it just focused on the fact that a prayer rally will be taking place in Mendiola.
The Business Mirror and BusinessWorld were only able to report on the issue on October 17, because they didn’t have a Sunday issue (October 16) and their Friday issue were dated for both Friday and Saturday (October 14-15). This made the Star the only paper that had completely missed out the story in the papers’ October 15 editions.
As a result of the Star’s snubbing of the October 14 rally, text messages instantly circulated that the paper had been “bought” by Malacañang to keep its silence on the water dispersal and that it should be boycotted. Even Star publisher Max V. Soliven got such a text message. In his October 18 “By The Way” column, he said that he was in Europe at the time of the rally and that he got embarrassed that his paper did not run a story on October 15. “I’ve called our editors for an explanation.”
Trying to make up for the absent story, after being chastised by Soliven, the paper carried a follow-up headline: “Guingona III: Rally dispersal form of tyranny, oppression.” Soliven’s reaction to the text was: “Oh well. Those who believe that stupid canard must already be readers of the other newspapers anyway. Truth will prevail, as our masthead says. No more excuses.”
I thought nobody would notice that, now thats journalism. (posted the same comment on the wrong subject.)