Weekly Brief
Obscure story on BBM "fake news" authored for AFP by UP journo alumna Faith Brown (graduated in 2017) picked up and amplified by Philippine Big Corporate Media
In review and in prospect
The clock continues to tick the days away. The campaign of the Opposition’s leading Yellowtard bloc headed by Leni Robredo has been doing pretty much the same thing over the last four to five weeks. The last two weeks were focused on the only campaign innovation they have mounted so far — going house-to-house. The only other significant observable change is the increased attacks on the character of administration candidate Bongbong Marcos by Robredo’s rivals in the Opposition — Isko Moreno, Ping Lacson, and Manny Pacquiao. How exactly they plan to win if they are using old tricks that have poor track records of converting voters is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, Opposition “thought leaders” continue to harp about “fake news” and “disinformation”. The latest work of “journalism” on the subject to go “viral” among the Yellowtards is a piece supposedly originating from the news wire service Agence France-Presse (AFP) that “reports” how “Philippine social media has exploded with support for presidential election favorite Ferdinand Marcos Jr., driven by a massive misinformation campaign aimed at revamping the family brand and smearing his top rival.” The piece, was supposedly authored by a certain Faith Brown who is, according to what seems to be her LinkedIn profile, a “fact-check journalist” who supposedly graduated with a Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines in 2017 and joined the AFP in July 2021.
The article does not come up in search results on the AFP site itself (nor on its “fact check” site AFP Fact Check) but seems to have been first published on Yahoo! Finance under the headline “Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race” on the 23rd of March. Amazingly, this obscure “report” written by a wet-behind-the-ears “reporter” whose previous job before joining the AFP was as “a local reporter and researcher for Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK; Japan Broadcasting Corporation) Manila Bureau” was picked up and bannered by several news organisations under even more sensational headlines:
Inquirer: “Marcos Jr. winning PH poll misinformation drive – analysis”
ABS-CBN News: “Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race”
Philippine Star: “Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race”
The Standard: “Filipinos fall for fake history”
In her piece “The state of Facebook content moderation” published today on her Inquirer column, Kay Rivera referred to Brown’s article (erroneously attributing it to the Associated Press)…
An AP article, ‘Filipinos fall for fake history,’ has gone viral on social media as an external perspective of how vulnerable the Filipino electorate is to fake news. It recognizes social media’s role as ‘critical’ and cites how machinery relying on troll armies and communities has heavily skewed our elections, despite efforts at fact-checking and debunking. Doubtless, this strategy succeeds due to heavily coordinated and paid activity. It is reasonable though to suppose that deficiencies in moderating non-English election misinformation plays a role as well.
As far as the esteemed “thought leaders” of the Opposition are concerned, loss in these elections only means one thing: they were “cheated” out of it because their rival used dishonest means to get ahead. It does not seem to occur to them that, perhaps, (1) their camp either did not do a better job at campaigning or (2) their rivals, quite simply, are the preferred candidates of a majority of Filipinos who are mature enough to think things through properly. To them they will always be “victims” of “sinister” and “evil” forces that are but figments of their stunted imagination.
Given the chance to “unite” under a solid Opposition coalition back in mid-2021, disparate opposition politicians chose to go their own individual ways and put up their own presidential bids. Today, it is amazing that they are even surprised by the result of that lack of foresight.
Last week’s blog posts
Ninoy Aquino deserves to have a tent set up in his face
April 2, 2022 by benign0
"According to the Yellowtards, dying 'for country' is a special skill only people from their camp posses. Never mind that thousands of Filipino soldiers did the same fighting the Yellowtards’ terrorist New People’s Army comrades."
We Are Letting A Golden Opportunity Slip Away
April 1, 2022 by Gogs
"Who are we to doubt this man? God is taking care of him, he finished university in 16 months, he is extremely attentive to his legislative duties, he starred in Wapakman , he coached Kia Motors and he keeps his word time and time again."
Why Yellowtards cannot shake the ELITIST label
March 30, 2022 by benign0
"Unfortunately for most Yellowtard insiders, elitism is like water to a fish. It is ingrained in the very fabric of their sub-culture."
Mistakes, miscalculations, and mismanagement summarize the Liberal Party’s leadership
March 30, 2022 by The Unpopular Opinion
"Philippine political institutions had never matured and, undeniably, continue to be non-inclusive, which is similar to how the Spaniards denied Filipinos socio-economic freedoms during the colonial period."
March 29, 2022 by benign0
"This recent report of theirs covers the 16th through the 22nd of March making it the most recent of the lot. The report continues to show administration candidate Bongbong Marcos enjoying a formidable lead..."