Thursday, October 05, 2006 Speak out: Plea for understanding By Andy L. Manatad
IN the effort of the media industry to soften the impact of a credibility crisis, block-timers have been left toiling in the void. Not only are their comrades in the so-called working media shunning them, they are also being vilified.
But the loser in the case of two media practitioners caught allegedly extorting money is really media itself. For while the public lynched the block-timers, the so-called working media folded their hands.
Rubbing salt on the wound is the elitist in the “working media” pontificating that they alone are the legitimate media practitioners. This ignores the value of block-timers, the silent foundation of media as an institution.
Lest we forget, block-timers were really the ones that brought the broadcast industry to where it is now. Without them, the media industry would not have become what it is today.
As for the classification “legitimate” or “illegitimate media,” is there any distinction? The fact that one is using a media outlet should make one a media practitioner. Sadly only those in the media circle drew this demarcation line.
This has become a sign of an impending implosion in the media, as the elitist members have become too high and mighty to realize all of us are equal in stature.
What should be done in the face of this credibility problem is for media people to sit down and tie loose ends. This is not the time to push the block-timers to the fringes; instead, all of us should help straighten the crooked path.
Paraphrasing Shylock’s plea in “The Merchant of Venice”: “We are block-timers, are we not also media people?” We too are media people, fed with the same food, warmed and cooled by the same weather.
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”
