Quoting Quiboloy: What’s the point?

WHY WASTE the news?

Jeers to several media organizations for paying attention to an absurd claim of a  founder and leader of a religious group who said that he did not stop Typhoon Tisoy (Int’l name: Kammuri) — because he didn’t want to be criticized. The storm battered the Bicol region when it made landfall on December 2.  

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy had earlier claimed he stopped one temblor among the series of earthquakes which jolted Mindanao in October and November. Quiboloy is an avid supporter of President Duterte, having generously contributed to his campaign. 

Online news sites CNNPhilippines.com, Inquirer.net, news.ABS-CBN.com and GMA News Online, primetime newscast Aksyon (TV5) and the daily broadsheet Manila Standard ran the story based on a video that was posted on the Facebook page of the founder and leader of the religious group “Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name.”

Media often thrive on color, even the outrageous. As Quiboloy is close to President Duterte, such news about the pastor also carries political color, according him with more importance than he deserves.  Even without the underlying politics, such coverage feeds preposterous ideas to the ignorant and the gullible, and lends such information with questionable relevance to people’s lives.