Who is being negative: Aquino or media?

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas

Like a spoiled child who didn’t get what he wanted, President Aquino ranted again against the media, accusing newsmen of “too much negativism,” particularly in their coverage of super typhoon Yolanda and the fighting in Zamboanga City.

“So often, when we read the newspaper, listen to the radio or watch TV, we still get a sense of too much negativism. It’s like if we don’t create controversy, our media are boring,” a visibly irked Aquino told members of the press at the Christmas party of the Bulong Pulungan forum at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.

Aquino made the remarks a few weeks after his approval rating dropped 15 points in a recent public opinion survey. “At the end of the day, the only criteria I have is: Did I do right? And sometimes the right decision may be unpopular. Sometimes, conversely, the wrong decision is immensely popular,” he said.

“Our people, I believe, are fair judges… I expect that the numbers will rebound, [but] in case they do go down, that is not the important thing,” he added. “Will our people see me as doing that which is right? That is what is important to me.”

But that precisely is what is wrong with his frequent rants against the media. He said he is not bothered by the continuous decline of his approval rating, and yet every time it suffers a drop, he blames the media. He says he believes the people are fair judges, and yet when the people decides he is not doing his job well, he rants and blames the media.

As early as January 2011, only six months into the presidency, Aquino criticized media’s alleged “propensity to focus on the negative issues instead of the positive ones.” At that time, Aquino was being criticized for his purchase of a Porsche and the use of an armored Lexus, which he claimed was loaned to him by his brother-in-law.

Aquino said some media personnel might just be turning a blind eye on positive developments under his administration. “Mahirap ipakita sa nagbubulagbulagan, at ipadinig sa nagbibingibingihan. Basta kami magtatrabaho na lang.”

Two weeks earlier, in a speech before the Filipino community in Jakarta, Aquino also took a swipe at media for “reporting negative news about the country instead of looking at its brighter side.”

So when the Social Weather Station reported that Aquino’s satisfaction rating had dipped 13 points, did you expect presidential deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte to say the poll result has only inspired the President to focus even more on the tasks at hand? No, she blamed the media and hinted that advertisers should boycott publications that are printing negative stories about the President.

Aquino was visibly irritated by media’s coverage of the devastation caused by typhoon Yolanda in Leyte, Samar and other areas in the Visayas. Did he want the media to ignore the hundreds of bodies that lay unattended on Leyte’s streets? Did he want media to say government is responding very quickly to the needs of the typhoon survivors, when relief came only three days after the disaster? Did he want media to ignore the chaos that have resulted from the disorganized relief and recovery operations?

Newsmen merely report the facts presented before them. They won’t say there are lootings if there are none. They won’t say the death toll could reach 10,000 if they were not told so, or if they did not witness the hundreds of bodies recovered daily. They won’t say relief goods have not reached certain villages, if indeed they have.

Aquino should have commended instead the media men for leaving the comfort of their offices so that the rest of the nation would know what was happening in that part of the country. Aquino saw the devastation himself; why has he not come out of denial and admitted that the devastation was truly enormous, and instead of ranting against media and the local executives, he should have rallied the entire government machinery to help the typhoon survivors.

He would rather blame than support the media and the local executives who were sweating it out in the disaster areas. Who is overflowing with negativism — he or the media? And yet, he is quick to criticize media for negativism?

Coming from Aquino, the son of the country’s most revered democratic icons, it is, to say the least, disappointing. The son the people and the media had expected too much has now resorted to blaming everybody else except himself for the poor ratings that he has been getting. The son everybody had expected to respect press freedom now wants media to temper its criticism.

But who will decide which is sensationalism and which is the truth? Should it be the presidential spokesmen? Should it be Aquino? What is sensationalism to Aquino and his aides could actually be the truth. And that is not for Aquino, his aides, or even the media to decide. The media merely reports the events that happen, and the columnists comment on such events. It is eventually the people who will decide what to believe and who to believe.

We cannot discount the fact that some media practitioners may have some biases or prejudices, but let the readers be the judge of that, not the politicians whose perception of what is wrong what is right, or what is true and what is not, is clouded by their own selfish interest.

The government that won on a legacy of freedom should let freedom reign. The government that got its nod from the people on a platform of integrity and credibility should not lose its patience in proving it is abiding by its commitment to truth.

(valabelgas@aol.com)