Friday, November 18, 2005
SpeakOut: Arroyo's criticism of the media
By Samahang Plaridel
Plaridel gratefully notes that in her remarks on the "bad boy" image of the Philippine press, the credibility and responsibility of which she found wanting, President Arroyo did not say that it has been spreading lies or fabricating stories against her administration.
Plaridel can only conclude that she knows as much as everyone else that practically every major national newspaper has been giving due prominence to every statement emanating from her, her press office and her Cabinet.
No one in her administration can credibly claim that any of the pronouncements, claims of achievements, announcement of projects and tirades against the opposition has been suppressed by reporters, editors and columnists.
For her or her spokesman to assert that media are wittingly or unwittingly manipulated by "sinister forces" is to shade the truth a bit too finely.
On the contrary, her administration has enjoyed more media space in its fulminations against its opponents.
All her media advisers have to do is to count the column inches and air time given to the administration as against the opposition.
It is ironic, although understandable, that her media advisers were staunch defenders of press freedom when they were not yet in government.
But even up to now, they still write apologetic columns and broadcast commentaries without any official complaint from independent journalists.
Plaridel, in the tradition of its "patron saint" Marcelo H. del Pilar, submits that criticism is only destructive of falsehood and not of the truth.
(November 18, 2005 issue)
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