Keeping Go in the Public Mind

JEERS TO The Philippine Star for giving so much space to Christopher “Bong” Go, the former special assistant of President Rodrigo Duterte and a senatorial aspirant in the coming midterm elections.

From December 1, 2018 to January 4, 2019, CMFR found that the Star published 18 reports of doubtful news value on Go’s activities and statements, his promises, praises for some groups, declaration of support for some causes, and his admiration for Duterte, among others.

The reports merely quoted Go and described what he did, and were clearly meant to keep him in the public mind, the midterm elections being only four months away. No one who failed to read these accounts would have missed anything important.

It is likely that some of these stories, if not all, were forwarded to journalists as press releases by Go’s PR team and were repackaged as news reports with little or no changes at all. The Star’s editors should have had the discernment to direct their reporters to find the real story behind the issuances or to just reject them for being obviously self-serving press releases.

CMFR checked the coverage of the Star’s rival broadsheets and found that the Manila Bulletin published six reports on Go, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one – a total of seven articles in the same time period. It would seem that the editors of these two dailies were more discerning.

CMFR has previously criticized some media organizations for publishing reports with little news value about some senatorial candidates, including Go. “To help create an informed electorate and to elevate the electoral discourse, the media should be doing stories on the truly news-worthy candidates who have clear, relevant, feasible and necessary programs of government.” (See “Too Much, Too Soon: Premature Campaigning via Media Exposure”)

Apparently, however, some prefer to take the well-worn path of serving as the vehicles of those candidates’ public relations handlers who’re expert at manipulating the public.