Weekly Brief
The Ateneo, Reuters, Rappler, and the usual suspects seemingly conspire to MISLEAD Filipinos into thinking an enormous number of people are "panic buying" anti-Marcos books.
In review and in prospect
Clearly not learning much from the catastrophic loss they suffered in these elections, key “thought leaders” of the utterly crushed Opposition continue to harp on the very topic that cost them the trust of an entire nation — the “evil” legacy of the Martial Law “regime” of the late former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
The most recent stunt perpetrated this week by Opposition “leaders” involves a media campaign to mislead Filipinos into believing that there is a frenzy of “panic buying” of anti-Marcos books raging across the archipelago. Leading the pack is a Reuters “news” article published the 27th May authored by its Philippine bureau chief Karen Lema. Lema “reports” that books “about the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his brutal era of martial law are flying off the shelves, spurred by ‘panic buying' after his son and namesake won a May 9 presidential election.” Headlining Lema's article is a sensational “'Protect the truth': A Marcos return in Philippines triggers fear for history”. On cue, “social news network” Rappler, a member of the “opposition media”, republished Lema’s “report” the day after it went online on the Reuters site.
As of this writing and since the publication of her “news report” on anti-Marcos books “flying off the shelves”, Lema has set her Twitter profile to private.
Where did this media circus start? Two weeks earlier, the Ateneo de Manila University reportedly “shared a reading list of books about Martial Law on Thursday, a day after local publishing company Adarna House started pre-orders for its discounted ‘Never Again' bundle.” None of these media outlets have so far followed up their “news reports” on these books with information on actual sales figures. It is likely that the notion of a “panic buying” spree surrounding these obscure volumes raging across the Philippines is confined to a clique of disgruntled “thought leaders” associated with the failed campaign of Opposition “leader” Leni Robredo and her communist allies. “Reporters” employed by mainstream media outlets like Reuters, Rappler, and ABS-CBN evidently cannot be bothered to corroborate perceptions gleaned from their immediate personal social networks with information from the broader public.
To give these “news” media organisations the benefit of the doubt is to assume that this “story” of “panic buying” all those anti-Marcos books is actually newsworthy — that it presents information of consequence to the broader Filipino public. Then again if, as is the perception of most people, all this is actually part of a continuing demonisation campaign against the Marcos family in an attempt to discredit the new Philippine Government, assure its failure, foment civil unrest, and, thus, lay the foundation for another one of those “ouster” initiatives that have become trademark for the Yellowtard “cause”, then the Media are not even doing a smart job delivering to that objective. These books, like the rhetoric their authors peddle, have been around for decades and had specially been amplified over the last two years leading up to this year’s 9th of May elections. None of that ammo evidently proved to be effective at mowing down any of more than the 31 million Filipino voters who trooped to the polls and cast their ballot in favour of “the dictator’s son”.
Why then do these Opposition “thought leaders” and their henchwomen in Big Corporate Media continue to keep shooting duds at their bogey? It’s simple, really. They do not listen. If these media execs are worried that the credibility of the once all-powerful erstwhile monopolies of mass information dissemination they lead are on a steady decline, they probably ain’t seen nothing yet. Continue this trajectory of propping up as “news” a topic the majority public have tuned themselves off from and very likely explicitly voted against this year, and that slow decline will turn into a death spiral. It takes balls to confront the truth and decisively and boldly correct one’s course on its bases. In the vernacular, a bomb or firecracker that fails to detonate and instead discharges in a dazzling but harmless fizzle is regarded as supót. Only people who have penises would truly understand the humorous cultural nuance of that term and take action.
Last week's blog posts
Why Rappler should be BANNED from covering Malacañang
May 27, 2022 by benign0
"Why even bother with Rappler when it is essentially an inconsequential parasitical media organisation of questionable value to the public interest? There are limits to inclusivity specially when one considers an organisation with possible foreign ties, is headed by a US citizen, and that holds an extensive track record of propagating divisive — often seditious — messages."
What next for the Philippines’ DISCREDITED mainstream corporate news media?
May 24, 2022 by benign0
"They tossed all semblance of objectivity out the window and took part in the solidarity-in-desperation that characterised Robredo’s campaign particularly in the final weeks leading to the 9th of May."