Starting today, and in batches thereafter, members of President Aquino's cabinet will be undergoing seminars on how to deal with the media. This is a good move considering that some of them are either neophytes in government or do not fully understand how the press works.
The seminars were called by Noynoy following a "run-in" between at least two members of his cabinet and some members of the media shortly after he took his oath of office. These two offficials were presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Education secretary Bro. Armin Luistro. I do not know about Lacierda because from what I saw of the incident in question on tv, there was nothing in his behavior, nor in his answers, that was even close to being arrogant or offensive.
As to Luistro, however, his off-the-cuff remark -- about the media being of no help to him, of being good only in stirring up conflicts -- when asked something about sex education was really uncalled for and regrettable.
The Lacierda incident was, to me, a no-incident. I do not even understand why the media is making such a big fuss about it. Frankly, if there is anyone who is at fault here, it is not Lacierda but the media.
The non-incident was born of the very first memorandum circular issued by the Aquino government, which it promptly recalled and then reissued, in a language that, according to Lacierda, was refined.
But one or two members of the media, who apparently had formulated their own answers to their own questions, pressed Lacierda to admit that the recall was made because "the government made a blooper" with the first.
Look, the duty of media during an interview is to solicit information. If information is given, well and good. If no information is given, there is a whole aircraft carrier of methods available to mediamen worth their salt to acquire information somewhere else.
It is never the duty of media to put words in the mouth of the person being interviewed. If Lacierda said the first memo was recalled in order to be fine-tuned, why should media be so arrogant and so abusive as to insist that it was a "blooper and a mistake."
When the media asked Lacierda if the recall was made because the first memo was a mistake and he answered that it was simply fine-tuned, what right did the media have to insist that he say otherwise, that he say it according to what the media already decided how it should be said?
The problem with media sometimes is that it tends to get carried away by its adversarial position toward government. While it is good to be aggressive on the job, the media must not lose sight of the fact that the rights accruing to the press are never absolute.
No right can be worse than one that, in its pursuit, tramples on the rights of others to pursue theirs. When the media asks someone a question, it must be willing to accept any answer given. If it is not satisfied with the answer, then by all means validate it elsewhere.
But never should the media insist that an interviewee is wrong, even if he is indeed wrong. Even if the interviewee is lying, the media is obliged to take the lie as his answer. Just because he is lying doesn't give media the right to insist that he change his answer.
One thing I have noticed about the media in the Philippines is their tendency to supply the answer to their own questions. Watch interviews closely. Often the interviewer can hardly resist leading an interviewee on. By contrast, foreign media lets interviewees just ramble on.
Vergel Santos, asked to comment on the flap, correctly pointed out that the Philippine media must learn to differentiate between reporting and opinion-making, between reporting the facts and expressing what you think of those facts.
As to Luistro, he definitely needs to do some adjustments. From where he comes from, he is clearly used to having his own way and must have been taken by surprise by the sudden media attention on his person. Give him time. If he doesn't change, then let us all give it to him.