When too much is too much

Jeers to 24 Oras and especially TV Patrol for devoting excessive airtime to Shamcey Supsup’s bid in this year’s Miss Universe beauty pageant last Sept. 13.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) did a timekeeping monitor of news programs TV Patrol, 24 Oras, and Aksyon last Sept. 13, the local date for the Miss Universe competition (held in São Paulo, Brazil). CMFR recorded the total airtime of the programs (excluding commercials) and monitored how much airtime was given to Shamcey, who was third runner-up in the contest.

Among the three programs, TV5’s Aksyon had the least airtime devoted to Shamcey—4 minutes and 29 seconds (or 15.06 percent) out of its total news airtime that night (28 minutes and 49 seconds). While the anchors started the newscast mentioning Shamcey’s bid, its three reports about her were placed at the end of the newscast. These included the account from their reporter in São Paulo who was covering the event.

One major lapse marred Aksyon’s coverage, however—reporting, without attribution, a supposed quote from a famous personality which turned out to be false. Aksyon reported that American celebrity and media mogul Oprah Winfrey had said in an interview that Shamcey deserved to win the crown based on her performance in the question-and-answer portion. Shamcey, who answered the question from a judge in English during the said portion, was the only one among the five finalists who didn’t require an interpreter.

Aksyon did not cite its source for the alleged Winfrey quote.

It turned out that the alleged quote, which was repeated in Twitter, Facebook and other sites in the afternoon of Sept. 13, proved to be false. As early as that afternoon, it was already doubtful that Winfrey ever said anything about the chances of Shamcey since no journalist or social media user had found any video or printed statement to confirm it.

Since the source of the Winfrey quote was already problematic hours before its airing that night, Aksyon should have at least warned its viewers that it was unconfirmed, or, what would have been even better, it should not have reported it at all.

Yahoo! News Philippines quoted a moderator on Oprah’s official website as saying that Winfrey did not issue “any comments of this nature.” (“Oh no, Oprah didn’t say that”)

Meanwhile, 24 Oras devoted 20 minutes and 44 seconds of its total airtime (66 minutes and 46 seconds) to reports about Shamcey (30.76 percent). Its first seven stories that night were about Shamcey’s Miss Universe finish, the public reaction, and background about Shamcey.

These reports were followed by a live interview by anchors Mel Tiangco and Mike Enrique with Timoteo Supsup, Shamcey’s father, which took more than five minutes. Tiangco’s and Enriquez’s questions were mostly on the trivial, such as who gave Shamcey her name, if she has a boyfriend, and the family’s plans to celebrate her third-place victory.

TV Patrol topped the other networks by providing more than half of its news airtime that night (34 minutes and 18 seconds out of 65 minutes and nine seconds or 52.51 percent) to Shamcey. Worse, these reports—including an interview with Shamcey that was divided into two parts—were scattered throughout the entire newscast. Scattering entertainment reports throughout a news program has become a key element in “dumbing down” the TV network audience, and contrasts with past TV Patrol and other news program templates in which there was only one segment for entertainment news usually relegated near the end of the newscast.

Earlier that day, ABS-CBN had already broadcast the Miss Universe special. But ABS-CBN’s flagship news program milked the news dry that night. TV Patrol started its reports about Shamcey with a news teaser titled “Tagumpay ng Pinoy (Victory of Filipinos)”. The first 19 minutes of its newscast were all about Shamcey.

TV Patrol finally moved on with other stories buried that day in the newscast—such as a story on former Sharia court judge Nagamura Moner’s admission that he was involved in the 2004 election fraud, and the resumption of the anti-smoking ban of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority—but not without first asking its viewers: “Dapat bang sinagot na lamang ni Shamcey Supsup sa wikang Pilipino ang tanong sa kanya (Should Shamcey Supsup have answered in Filipino the question she was asked )?”

TV Patrol’s interview with Shamcey was divided into two parts which, again, were distributed throughout its one-hour coverage. The first took more than four minutes while the second was almost three minutes long.

TV Patrol’s newscast ended with anchors Noli de Castro, Korina Sanchez, and Ted Failon discussing the poll results. In total, the program devoted 11 reports/segments about Shamcey (including the announcement of the poll and the discussion of the poll results) out of 24 reports/segments.

The lopsided coverage on Shamcey’s Miss Universe candidacy relegated other stories of national significance in sidelines. These included two events that also happened that day: Nagamura’s Senate testimony on his involvement in election fraud in 2004 to make sure Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won the elections, and the two bombings in Cotabato during the visit there of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Jesse Robredo.

2 responses to “When too much is too much”

1. When too much is too much | Center for Media Freedom … | Pnoy Talks says:

   September 17, 2011 at 1:05 am

   […] See original here: When too much is too much | Center for Media Freedom … […]

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2. When too much is too much | Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility says:

   November 4, 2011 at 10:33 am

   […] Bryant L. Macale Published in PJR Reports, September-October 2011 This is an updated version of When too much is too much, Sept. 16, […]

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