Prioritizing basketball

JEERS TO TV Patrol for devoting a third of its  air time to reports on the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals last June 21 to the exclusion  of other, more relevant stories, in the process raising questions on the news priorities of some media organizations.

PJR Reports monitored the news programs TV Patrol, 24 Oras, Aksyon and Solar Network News last June 21 after the Miami Heat’s thrashing of the San Antonio Spurs, 95-88, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol topped other news programs by dedicating 21 minutes and 13 seconds, or 37.41 percent , of its total airtime for Heat’s victory that night. The news program included two reports about Miami Heat in its top stories of the day. NBA news in the program included a live report from Florida, details on NBA-Game 7, an analysis of the game, Pinoy basketball fans’ reactions to  Game 7, Pinoy fans in the US’ rejoicing over the Heat’s winning,  and an interview with  Filipino-American Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s relatives in Los Baños, Laguna.

Among the four programs, SolarTV’s Solar Network News had the least airtime devoted to the Heat win—2 minutes 16 seconds, or 3.62 percent of total news airtime. TV5’s Aksyon devoted 2 minutes 16 seconds, or 5.66 percent of total news airtime. GMA network’s 24 Oras, on the other hand, devoted 5 minutes and 26 seconds, or 8.68 percent of total news airtime to the win. Both Solar News Network and Aksyon did one report on the NBA Finals while 24 Oras did two.

TV Patrol, and other news programs, usually have a sports segment with snippets on different sports. But its July 21 episode dedicated almost half of the program to the NBA Finals results—a total of six reports.  ABS-CBN had aired the NBA-Game 7 live earlier that day.

There was no lack of significant developments and events last June 21. These included developments in  the investigation of the  sex-for-flight scheme embattled overseas Filipino workers say is in place in some Philippine embassies in the Middle East; the identification of landslide prone areas in the National Capital Region;  the proposed increases in  fares for the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) and the Light Railway Transit (LRT);  the disposition of  P420-million worth of smuggled elephant tusks;  and the effects of the haze from the burning of  trees and other vegetation in Indonesia  on Filipinos working in Singapore.