EDITORIAL – Wake-up call for media
Text messages sent by Filipinos all over the country to the Philippine Star should give media practitioners some reason to pause and ponder. While the negative perceptions cannot be considered overwhelming, they were numerous and angry enough to be ignored.
What makes many of the text messages a cause for concern is that they involve matters that have a great probability of being true. Worse, they are matters that media practitioners are either not aware of or, heaven forbid, are deliberately ignoring.
Read the Philippine Star issue of Wednesday, December 19, and you will see that a great number of Filipinos, from northern
Media practitioners in this country are seen as abusive, abrasive, overly loud and too often disrespectful. They are seen not only as prone to error but too arrogant to admit to any mistakes.
But the worst indictments are perceptions of being corrupt, of being biased and unfair, of being hypocrites. Media practitioners are seen as people who have no qualms about stepping on other people's toes yet become instant crybabies when it is they who get bumped a little.
The text messages have a sobering effect on those who truly value their profession and who, in their exercise thereof, have chosen to deliberately and consciously cloak themselves with a fair sense of reality.
The media is a very powerful sector of society. To be vested with the power of the press can be heady that, in personalities unprepared to handle such power, it can be dangerous. It can be destructive.
To be in media is not a right but a privilege, and it is hoped practitioners exercise that privilege responsibly and well. Along this line, it is further hoped the media can learn to listen as well as they talk.
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