Media boost false claims on “500k” crowd at UniTeam rally

JEERS TO the media organizations that parroted without checking the grossly exaggerated number of people who supposedly attended the Marcos-Duterte campaign event on March 13.  Some online news accounts reported that UniTeam’s caravan from Muntinlupa-Las Piñas and the rally in Las Piñas drew some 500,000 people, an estimate attributed by the campaign group to local police.

Manila Bulletin Online reported on March 14 the crowd estimate given by the campaign team, which the article said was based on a police report. The same article added that according to an un-named staff of a UniTeam Senatorial candidate, Mark Villar, there could have been more than 500,000 people. Villar himself has also said it seemed as though “not one Las Piñas resident remained at home” (“Parang walang naiwan sa bahay”).

Two other online news sites used the Marcos camp’s overblown estimate. In a March 14 article that has since been taken down from their website, Daily Tribune also reported the same figures; also citing local police. 

Two days after the rally, Inquirer.net reported the estimate of  Captain Jose Gonzales of the Las Piñas Traffic and Parking Management Office’s (TPMO) who said that “hundreds of thousands” came to attend. The report, which came after the issuance of three fact-checks, quoted Villar heavily. Villar shared the TPMO’s report online the night before the Inquirer’s article was posted. 

Media’s quick fact-check

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN News on March 14, the same day the Bulletin posted the article, Las Piñas Police Chief PCol. Jaime Santos said that their estimate was different from what was attributed to local police by the Marcos camp, pointing to their official report that estimated the crowd at a mere 18,000. 

Based on this correction, ABS-CBN, did a fact check on March 14. The next day, CNN Philippines, and Rappler promptly followed up with fact-checks of the Marcos campaign’s claim. ABS-CBN’s fact-check added that one of their correspondents present at the event said the police on site gave the estimate of 18 thousand just as Santos had confirmed. CNN also called attention to the vague wording of the estimate in the TPMO’s “Post Activity Report” that Villar posted online.

As of March 16, the Bulletin and Inquirer had yet to issue a correction, based on the clarification issued by Santos and other subsequent fact checks. Their misleading articles are unchanged on their respective websites and social media channels, with the Bulletin’s  featured on Presidential candidate Marcos Jr.’s website. 

The Tribune was quick to hide evidence that they carried the false claim, as the link to the original article now redirects to a new report on Santos’ correction of the estimate, without any acknowledgment of their own incorrect report. 

Media as propaganda vehicle

The Bulletin promoted its article on social media as “breaking news”, which netizens correctly said was not an accurate label because the report was not issued in real time but one day after the event. 

The treatment of this crowd estimate in the Bulletin’s social media platform was clearly intended to spread an exaggerated claim supplied by the group in charge of the event. It was accepted without checking by the reporter as well as the page editors, all of whom allowed the use of the Manila Bulletin as a vehicle for UniTeam propaganda. 

The failure to check claims of crowd estimates is a blatant disservice to voters. The least that media can do is get the numbers right. There is a method that journalists learn when assigned to cover crowds that can help them check when the campaign managers or police want to puff up or deflate the numbers. Editors should make sure the reporters assigned are prepared to evaluate the accuracy of the estimates provided by other sources. 

Media should know better by now that such claims–especially when attributed to a single source–obliges the reporter to get more sources to confirm an estimate. 

Perhaps, however, it is not just laziness or ignorance that causes such bad reporting. The temptation to be part of a “winning” team is something that a journalist must always check and resist. It also raises the question of whether there was some under-the-table agreement between some media organizations and the more moneyed candidates to make the latter look more popular than their rivals.