Headlining trivia

Jeers to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for making a brawl between public figures its May 7 lead story at the expense of other issues.

The Inquirer was the only Manila-based “national” broadsheet that made the scuffle between its columnist Mon Tulfo and showbiz celebrity couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 last May 6 its lead story.

“Actor, pals gang up on Tulfo at Naia 3: Columnist was taking photos of irate Claudine”, ran the Inquirer headline in its two-star edition. The story, accompanied by a videograb of a Youtube video showing a part of the incident, relegated to the sidelines such stories as the May 7 resumption of the Senate trial of the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, and President Benigno Aquino III’s call to Corona to explain allegations he has a $10-M bank account.

The Philippine Star also carried the NAIA 3 story on the front page together with photos of Tulfo, Santiago, and Barretto. But the story and photos were below the fold, apparently signifying the paper’s assessment of the news value of the incident. (“Tulfo, Raymart figure in NAIA brawl”) The paper’s main story was Aquino’s call to Corona to explain the alleged $10-M bank account (“Bare assets to public, P-Noy urges Corona”)

Two other papers, the Manila Bulletin and The Manila Times, also published stories on the incident but put them in the inside pages.

The remaining five Manila papers (BusinessWorld, Malaya, The Daily Tribune, BusinessMirror, and the Manila Standard Today) had no story at all on the celebrity scuffle.

Incidentally, the following tabloids made the same decision as the Inquirer’s to make the incident its lead story:

• Abante: “Tulfo-Raymart nagbugbugan (beat up each other)!”
• Abante Tonite: “Claudine-Raymart-Tulfo magdedemandahan (plan to sue)!”
• Bulgar: “Rambulan sa NAIA: Mon sinapak ni Raymart (NAIA brawl: Raymart Santiago beats up Mon Tulfo)”