The year that was in the news media
Despite Aquino rebuke, improvements evident in press coverage of crisis
By Paul Dawnson M. Formaran, Bryant L. Macale, and Kathryn Roja G. Raymundo, PJR Reports, October-December 2012
PRESIDENT BENIGNO S. Aquino III was exceptionally critical of the press in 2012, among his complaints being inaccuracy and its alleged focus on the bad news that he said discouraged tourism and foreign investments.
Aquino chose at least five gatherings to be critical of the media: the Philippine Press Institute’s (PPI) National Press Forum last April 23; the silver anniversaries of BusinessWorld and TV Patrol on July 27; the 38th Kapisanan ng Mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Top Level Management Conference last Nov. 15; and the nineth MediaNation “Summit” last Nov. 23. All five had primarily media people for an audience. But as his speeches were widely reported by media, the public now knows quite well the president’s displeasure with the press.
Negative news
SOURCE: “Philippine Press Institute’s 16th National Press Forum (Speech) 4/23/2012“, Presidential Broadcast Staff Radio Television Malacañang
Speaking before the PPI Forum last April 23, Aquino complained that “negative” stories figure prominently in the newspapers while “positive” stories are almost never printed. His PPI audience consisted of reporters, editors and other staff members of the organization’s 72 member publications.
“While some of our fellow countrymen are trying hard to rise up, others are working hard to pull them down,” Aquino said. He compared what the press was doing to crabs in a basket pulling each other down to get out — the source of the popular phrase “crab mentality”.
“Where are we now?,” asked Aquino. “Is the principle ‘get it first, but get it right’ still there, or has it been replaced with ‘get it first, make sure the story sells and if the information’s not correct, just apologize later?’” He then gave examples, among them the false reports on Twitter that he was on a date at Greenhills that traditional media picked up, while he was actually in a meeting with the National Economic and Development Authority.
More bad news
A few months later, the President again rebuked the news media for the alleged prevalence of negative stories. On July 27, addressing a gathering marking the silver-anniversary of business broadsheet BusinessWorld five days after his State of the Nation Address (SONA), during which he reported the economic gains his administration had achieved, he said the media had neglected to emphasize these gains in exchange for sensational speculation.
The President mentioned “the renaissance of free media—free to pursue the integrity, accuracy, and balance” as the premise of BusinessWorld when it was established after Martial Law in 1986. “Sadly,” however, “the general state of our national media makes us aware that its full realization has yet to be achieved.”
In addition to the news media’s alleged neglect to highlight the government’s economic gains, he also criticized them for not following through in reporting carjacking cases once the mastermind had been sentenced. “We tend to hear more about the latest carnapping victim, (instead of) the carnapping cases’ dropping by more than half,” said the president.
Driving his point home, Aquino asked, “Think about it: In the long term, how many people would be willing to pay just to have their day daily ruined? How long can an audience withstand negativism day in and day out?”
[…] ABS-CBNnews.com’s Top stories for 2012 • CMFR’s “The year that was in the news media” • New players in the media landscape • The big news in TV news for […]