TV Patrol Anniversary not the right time and place for PNoy's speech

PNoy is my president. I voted for him last 2010 elections but I’m disappointed with him after what he did during the Silver Anniversary of TV Patrol at the Manila Hotel last week. While I agree with his predicament about Noli de Castro, I just don’t think that was the right time and venue for it. Moreover, I don’t also buy the idea of prioritizing the good news or choosing what to report that will not paint a negative image to the country, because that is not how news should be. But it was right that he expressed his complaints or feelings about how news stories are presented, but again, it was not the right place.

As a masscom graduate, the first thing I’ve learned in my journalism subject back then at the University of San Jose Recoletos under Dr. Teoddie Dumam-ag, who is now the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, was to not “editorialize” the story. I cannot forget this term because admittedly I did not know what “editorialize” meant, that I had to approach him right after I got hold of my paper during one of those news writing exercises and that was when he explained to me that it means not injecting your opinion in a straight news article. During our discussions back then we’ve talked about how news anchors should behave on air—radio or TV. If you agree or disagree with a news report, you should not let it show through your facial expression and body language or manner of delivery. If raising your eyebrows or smiling in reaction to a news report is a no no in TV broadcasting, how much more commenting to a news article itself?

But then again, if you watch TV Patrol, anchors Korina Sanchez, Ted Failon and de Castro do that in between news reports, every now and then. Worse, they banter about the reports before they go off air and their comments smell of so much bias. Yes, back in masscom school, we were told to forget everything we learned in the classroom when we get to the real media world, but I don’t think this should include ethics and objectivity.

I’ve said this before in my previous PenPoints and I say this again now: TV Patrol should not have the present lineup of anchors now because you cannot expect objectivity from them. De Castro, as we all know used to be a senator and vice president of the republic. Failon was congressman in Tacloban and Korina is Mrs. Roxas. No matter how much they try to be impartial, their political background will easily overshadow any attempt at objectivity. TV Patrol is a news program; therefore it should be as is—straight news, no commentaries, no spin.

Interestingly, an hour or two before PNoy’s controversial speech, I was back in USJR, speaking before Introduction to Radio Broadcasting students of my graduate studies classmate Zyrille April Maningo about the local radio industry, how to be part of it and how news should be. One of the students asked me about the difference between a commentator and reporter. I told her, a commentator is the counterpart of a columnist. If you are an on-air personality, you will be called commentator when you comment about a certain issue. If you are in print, then you will be known as columnist. But columnists and commentators are the same—they comment on a certain issue, make a stand and then suggest what should be done. Meanwhile, a reporter, simply collates the details of an event or story and report as it is, no spin, no bias.

Two weeks ago, I was invited to speak before selected high school students from Mactan during the “Media Festival” at Marie Ernestine in Lapu Lapu City organized by Comarts Learning Center (Communication Arts Training Group) owned by model, actress, personality mentor and Professor Margie Visitacion, about news and column writing. It was my second time to grace the two-year-old annual festival. This is in cooperation with DepEd Lapu-Lapu through the unwavering support of its superintendent Dr. Eduardo Ompad and Marie Ernestine of course. Last year, I was with pageant mentor Orly Cajegas, (feature writing), Marigold Lefumfacil (sports writing), Alex Badayos (photography) and Rico Lucena (TV broadcasting).

This year, I joined the group of “ABS-CBN Central Visayas active and non-active news personalities such as Jun Nino (sports writing), Kara Mae Noveda (feature writing), Toni Despojo (photography), Rico Lucena (TV newscasting/anchoring).Joworski Alipon was also there because he is part of Com Arts, so it was like a reunion of sorts for Kara and Jun Nino after they left TV Patrol to pursue other endeavors.

Last year, I was only tasked to discuss about news writing but this time, they added column writing to my topics. So there was me again, telling the participants about the difference between the two forms of writing and about what editorializing is all about. So you see these are basics in media, therefore, TV Patrol should not let the basics be forgotten or changed. News program should have no commentary in between.

But while I don’t like the style of TV Patrol, I still don’t see PNoy’s speech justifiable because the event was inappropriate. It was a celebration, not a forum about the state of Philippine media and the personalities that comprise it. While others say it was an opportune time because all the bosses were around, I don’t think you should humiliate somebody or an institution that invited you to celebrate with them and cherish good memories with. You don’t rant in your host’s backyard. This reminds me of his Malacañang staff who was part of his entourage during his state visit to Vietnam, who tweeted something negative about the wine served. That was a no no and we did not like it. How was it different then to the Manila Hotel incident?

Yes it’s good to be honest and truth hurts but you express it at the proper forum and time. The president complained about negative reports and accomplishments of his administration not highlighted in news reports. What then is his Media Group doing? What ever happened to the government owned and subsidized radio stations? The good deeds not being highlighted means something is wrong and that should be looked into. We should not expect privately owned media outfits to highlight positive stories in their respective programs and publications because, back in mass communication school our orientation was “good news is no news, bad news is good news.” That’s a basic and has been followed and implemented all these years. And basics should not be changed nor altered. No spin, no bias…as simple as that.