It was not enough that the Senate itself was thrown into crisis. One senator had to drag the media into the fray.
The word “bayaran” (paid hacks) was raised in the middle of last Thursday’s Senate blue ribbon committee gathering. (A committee meeting or hearing, depending on which faction’s lens you use.) Sen. Rodante Marcoleta described some members of mainstream media as paid hacks.
He apologized later that day. “I did not mean it,” he said, adding that it was an expression of his “deep frustration” about past media coverage. As an example, he cited the media’s failure to mention him or his 45-minute speech at all in news reports on a large religious gathering.
To understand what Marcoleta said, one has to look at the chaos surrounding him. There was a shift in power when Alan Peter Cayetano was ousted as Senate president and replaced by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian under a new majority. Cayetano, however, insists he is still Senate president. It was in this context that Marcoleta, who is with the Cayetano faction, hit at the media, the usual and the oldest tactic of an embattled politician.
Several media groups, including the Senate press corps, issued statements condemning Marcoleta’s claim as not only irresponsible but also a “reckless attack on an institution widely acknowledged as essential to any functioning democracy.” Other groups pointed to how such sweeping statement could encourage harassment or attacks on media workers. Just look at the comments section of social media posts.
Journalists covering the Senate made this important distinction. “Criticism of media coverage is fair and even healthy in a democratic society. But there is a profound difference between constructive criticism and the wholesale vilification of an entire profession.”
Reporters are not perfect. They make mistakes in the rush to publish the news. Editors decide the treatment of the news. They, too, can make wrong evaluations about which stories or parts of the stories to emphasize, downplay, or ignore.
But Marcoleta’s “bayaran” statement could signal to those in power and to every Filipino for that matter, that it is okay to attack the messenger. When a senator normalizes the “bayaran” label without basis or evidence, he could embolden others to use the same tag and, worse, encourage online harm to spill into physical harm.
Marcoleta took back his statement and tried to explain where his frustration originated. But we wonder. Will the Senate, whichever faction ends up running it, defend the press’s right to cover it without being called liars or hacks?
The Fourth Estate does not exist to serve any political bloc. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth and its first loyalty is to citizens, according to Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in “The Elements of Journalism.” It does not owe allegiance to Cayetano or Gatchalian, to the old majority or the new one. That obligation to the truth becomes even more critical during periods of intense political conflict.