Blame game

Deanna Wong, Bea de Leon and their teammates went viral snubbing their fans. Quick to defend them is their management. It said their fans know how warm, respectful, appreciative and accommodating these tall and pretty women are. They are, until they looked down like they neither saw nor heard their excited fans greeting them. The management is however indignant the viral clip did not include other videos showing the ladies accommodating their fans.

Here we go again, blaming media for highlighting the bad and not reporting the good. Of course they accommodate their fans. But when celebrity athletes treat their followers with kindness and warmth, that’s not news. It’s not even new. They are morally bound to be kind to the people from whom they owe much of their fame and fortune, if any. They should even be, to everyone, including those they do not benefit from.

But when they snub their fans, that’s news. Even if it’s not also new. Others did worse, but it doesn’t make their omission right either. News is noteworthy information, something unusual, shocking and morally revolting. When government men and women better our lives, that’s not news. We don’t even need to thank them. We paid them with our taxes. They’re duty bound to deliver. But when they worsen us by ineptitude or thievery, that’s news, even if we already know.

When a father loves his daughter to pieces, that’s not news. But when he molests her to pieces, that’s news. When a dog bites a man, that’s not news. But when a man bites a dog, that’s news. Or, when a man eats his dog, that’s bigger news. When foreign press reported Filipinos eat their dogs, we’re naturally offended. But we should neither deny it happens in isolated cases nor stop them from talking about it, although bloated. Just as we report other races eat their own kind. It’s cultural, not universal.

No one should dictate upon media what to write and what not to write, what to report and what not to report. That is what freedom of the press and of expression are all about. No one should demand media to balance their news, report the good and the beautiful. It’s always tilted in favor of truth, no matter how ugly it is. Or especially if it is. If you want to hear something good to start your day bright, there’s entertainment and society page, although no one ends the day right at night by starting it with a lie at dawn.

Exactly why a newspaper has several sections to cater to the profound and the trivial. If you choose reality, read news that disturbs and perturbs. If you choose fantasy, read fairy tales like you were a kid, or believe in fake news like you were senile. That’s the beauty of democracy, it gives us alternatives, including dumb and stupid choices. And these volleybelles chose to snub their fans like smiling or waving is the hardest thing to do. It’s neither dumb nor stupid though, but definitely not right, much less bright.