A Scary Coverage: “Ghost-whispering”
By JB Santos
JEERS TO broadcasting and cheers to print in their coverage of the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day holidays last November.
Though there were bright spots in the coverage, mostly appearing in print, outrageous stories along the line of the infamous Magandang Gabi Bayan horror stories still haunted the public.
PJR Reports monitored the Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 coverage of newspapers (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, and Manila Times) and TV programs (24 Oras and TV Patrol World).
The scariest coverage came from TV. More than the subject matter of the TV reports, what was scariest was the apparent disregard by the TV news reporters of basic journalistic principles in approaching their stories. What happened, as stated by Inquirer editor Lito Zulueta in the November 2008 issue of PJR Reports, was “ghost-whispering” rather than truth-telling.
Broadcast news
24 Oras started as early as Oct. 29 in reporting the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day commemoration.
For some strange reason, 24 Oras anchor Mike Enriquez, while reporting inside the Manila South Cemetery on Oct. 31, seemed surprised when he saw food stalls in the cemetery. ”Iba-iba pong klaseng ulam ang ibenebenta diyan (sa mga foodstalls). May nilaga, may pansit, siyempre may kanin, may adobo may chopsuey pa nga. Pati kasoy mayroon pa nga eh (There are different viands sold in the foodstalls. There is nilaga, pansit, of course there is rice, there is adobo and there is chopsuey. Even cashew nuts are sold),” Enriquez reported incredulously.
Even more incredulous was Enriquez’s half-minute report on his visit to one of his relatives’ graves in the Manila South Cemetery.
The report showed footage of Enriquez looking solemnly at the grave of his relative.
The coup de grace, however, was the nearly three-minute report by 24 Oras on different ghost stories from places such as Baguio, La Union and Laguna.
In observance of the event, reporting on ghost stories may have been warranted. But like any other story, ghost stories should be subjected to the usual double-checking of facts. Though it would be difficult to actually verify the claims of the sources interviewed in the 24 Oras report narrating ghost sightings, some effort should have been exerted to verify the histories behind it. In one of the stories, it was said that ghosts surfaced after over forty fetuses and other remains of dead people were excavated from the house’s backyard. If indeed such an event were true, it would surely have been documented as news in the locality and fact-checking would not be so difficult. Interviewing old-timers in the area, or checking municipal hall records, or community newspapers could have helped establish whether the event had indeed happened.
Noticeable also was the nondisclosure of the identity of the sources for the ghost stories. The report withheld the names as well as the faces of the sources without any explanation. Were they, like whistleblowers in a corruption story, afraid of retribution?
At the end of the story, the reporter even transformed himself into an instant spiritual counselor.
“Anuman ang katotohanan sa likod ng mga kuwento ng kababa-laghan, magandang panlaban pa rin ang matibay na pananampalataya (Whatever the truth is behind the mysterious stories, an effective defense is still one’s strong faith),” the reporter said.
On the other hand, TV Patrol had a report last Nov. 1 about the Manila City Hall, which was said to be coffin-shaped.
“Kasama ang spirit questor, pinuntahan namin ang city hall para alamin kung may epekto sa mga nagtatrabaho at bisita dito ang nakapangingilabot na korte nito (Along with a spirit questor we went to the city hall to know if its terrifying shape has an effect on city hall employees),” the reporter said.
The reporter went on to narrate the findings of the “spirit questor” on every floor of the Manila City Hall. The “spirit questor” actually said that the Manila City Hall is not actually shaped like a coffin but a “diamond,” which, he said, “gives good things to the residents of Manila”.
Historian Carlos Celdran, who was interviewed in the report, said that the “coffin shape” look of the Manila City Hall was not intentional. Any effort to explain the shape of the Manila City Hall through a historical perspective, however, ended with Celdran’s brief statement.
“Oddities have a place in the news but they should not be exempt from journalistic skepticism and questioning that must accompany any other story,” noted a monitor that similarly called attention to ghost stories in the news in PJR Reports’s Nov. 2006 issue.
Print coverage
The stories from the print media were more restrained. The Bulletin printed comprehensive maps showing the rerouting of roads leading to cemeteries. Last Nov. 1, the Times ran the banner story “P77M lost to ‘ghost’ police” about how the “government lost millions of pesos in paying thousands of Philippine National Police personnel who were no longer in active service” as revealed by a 2007 Commission on Audit report.
Particularly laudable was the coverage by the Inquirer which offered well-thought out stories that merely reported what people said without succumbing to the tendency of the broadcast media to sensationalize stories of ghosts and the supernatural.
Last Oct. 31, the Inquirer ran a story by Inquirer.net business editor Ma. Salve Duplito (“Is it smart to invest in a memorial plan?”) which tackled the advantages and disadvantages of investing in different types of memorial plans. “It’s time for ghost stories again”, also last Oct. 31, was on ghost stories in Baguio. It provided brief histories behind each story.
The Inquirer also ran a story last Nov. 1, “Canadian in search of origins of aswang,” which featured the attempt by a Canadian filmmaker to document the origins of the word “Aswang” in the Philippines. The film will be on how “aswang” became a popular tag in Capiz. On the same day, the Inquirer also printed “The ‘spirits’ of the Cordilleras”, which was on the beliefs and practices of the Cordillera’s Kankanaey tribe.
Last Nov. 2, the Inquirer ran a front-page story, “Sibuyan townsfolk tell of eerie sounds, sights” about “eerie sounds and sights” heard and seen by the residents in Sibuyan, Romblon near the sunken M/V Princess of the Stars. The story, which also recounted similar experiences by Philippine Coast Guard members, was tempered and not much overplayed. The Inquirer also ran a story last Nov. 2, “Visiting RP’s only underground cemetery”, that featured the underground cemetery in Nagcarlan, Laguna, which emphasized its history. On the same day, a new service which allows individuals to attend the wake or funeral of a kin online was featured by the Inquirer, “Online wake at ‘e-burol’ for faraway kith, kin”. The service, which targets overseas Filipino workers, makes use of webcams installed around a wake or funeral service.
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