Covering the Impeachment Missing: The Voice of the People

Some positive

For all the missteps, however, there were also efforts to extend the accessibility of the live coverage. Live feeds of the broadcast news organizations’ coverage were streamed on their online platforms. ANC provided an inset of a sign-language interpreter for the hearing impaired. GMA News TV flashed a short description of the article of impeachment under discussion during the trial.

Some of the networks also had special reports on collateral issues that came up during the hearing, among them the report on the World Bank-funded projects of the Supreme Court, and Corona’s SALN and his allegedly undisclosed properties.

Solar TV News aired background stories on what an impeachment is and a timeline of events leading to the Corona impeachment trial in the Senate. TV5 also did a report on the rules and procedures of the impeachment court.

Some of the networks invited legal experts to explain legal jargon and other matters related to the impeachment. There was, however, an over-reliance on the legal experts to almost entirely everything, rather than for the anchors and reporters to do their homework.

The recaps during breaks and the summary of events at the end of each day’s coverage were helpful in enabling the public to get the gist of what went on in the trial. But both the questions and the ensuing discussions by some anchors tended towards commentary, which accounts for the general perception that the networks were biased for or against Corona. In one instance, Karen Davila of ANC asked Sen. Vicente Sotto III, “What are the guidelines that cover a senator judge? It is not the job of a senator to interrogate…” This was due to allegations that some senator judges were usurping the role of the prosecutors by “interrogating” witnesses.

There was also a pronounced tendency to ask questions that suggested their own answers, and even to directly comment on matters involving the trial. When a co-anchor asked a guest  why the senator judges were wearing robes, which incidentally has been given an inordinate amount of attention by the media, Arnold Clavio of GMA News TV  replied by saying it was  “to dramatize.”

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