IMELDA Marcos, when she was first lady to Ferdinand Marcos, complained about how the critical press preferred to use unflattering photos of her instead of those showing her best side.
The use of photos of Mrs. Marcos showing her in ugly poses was a method resorted to by the critical press to get back at the regime. The press then was threatened with closure or the arrest of its owners and journalists if it placed the Marcoses in a bad light.
Such device of letting photos say something different can be applied, as well, to the writing of the headline or the angling of a story towards one side.
This was what the Manila Standard wanted us to believe it resorted to when it published in its Sept. 21 issue a headline story with the title, “Witnesses finger Leila.” Its report was on the House of Representatives investigation on the drug problem at the national penitentiary where prisoners testified that Sen. Leila de Lima was allegedly involved. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said several Facebook and Twitter users tagged it regarding the Standard’s headline. The CMFR found the title to be distasteful and inappropriate.
The CMFR said, “While ‘finger’ is technically a synonym for ‘point,’ the use of it in the headline of the news article was inappropriate because it also carries with it a sexual innuendo. More appropriate — and less distasteful — words such as ‘implicate,’ ‘incriminate,’ ‘accuse,’ or ‘tag’ could have been used.”
“As a general rule, reporters should ‘not use obscene, profane or vulgar terms in a story unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a compelling need to use them in completing the story,” it said on a statement on www.cmfr-phil.org.
The Standard wasn’t being censored nor were its editors threatened when it had to write the head in that way to embarrass Senator de Lima. The way the head was written, without a compelling reason to do so, could be a reflection of bias.
Journalists during the Marcos era had to use creative means to let the other side of the story come out at a time when freedoms were suppressed and the press was closely watched. Choosing an unflattering photo or writing the article title in a way that can have two meanings were among such methods.
In the case of the Manila Standard, there was no attempt to curtail its freedom nor was a side to the story suppressed by the powerful. The use of “finger” instead of a more appropriate word was deliberate and shameful.
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The Bicol Association of Cebu Inc. is inviting devotees of “Ina,” the Our Lady of Peñafrancia, patroness of Bicolandia, to the fiesta celebration in Cebu today, Sunday.
Fiesta mass is at 5:30 p.m. at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Capitol Parish) church, concelebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Dennis Villarojo and Bicolano priests. Hermano and hermana for this year are Amado Jr. and Melodina Cabaero, and Adeline Young-Go.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)