Tag Archives: news and public affairs

komentaryo

a resigned Ressa, a resigned us

why ABS-CBN? why would any network, in fact, let Maria Ressa go? it barely makes sense, if we know of her and her news and current affairs management and the ways she’s changed the news as we see it. and no, I don’t buy that whole refusal-to-renew-the-contract story, because really you can beg/ plead/ grovel to keep someone on your side,  especially when they’ve done so well, have outdone too many, in fact.

and this Maria has done for ABSCBN, allowing for ANC on Channel 27 to be the one and only reason we are still on Lopez-owned HomeCable even when they continue to provide horrible service especially since they forced subscribers to shift to the digiboxes. her management has single-handedly raised the bar for current affairs shows allowing for something as creative as Storyline to be on air, and bringing back the talk show that ain’t showbiz. of course all these have been on ANC, a cable news channel, but  at least for those of us who can afford cable, there’s a better alternative to news that happens so late in the evening because of the stretch of soap operas (beginning at 7PM and ending at 11:30PM).

and if you don’t agree with any of these, or just don’t have ANC (good for you for refusing the cultural empire of the Lopezes), then at least under Maria’s leadership, local channels have again started to do live broadcasts of senate hearings and such, because ANC was doing it.

this is not to agree with Maria’s management decisions all the time, nor is it to absolve ABSCBN (or any other network for that matter) from responsibility in the Manila hostage tragedy. in fact, I didn’t like that her Wall Street Journal article appeared so soon after the tragedy, adding salt to the wound, if not cutting deeper into it.

BUT I appreciate Maria’s chutzpah, her daring, even when faced with the probability of a collective disgust, or just a critical reader. I remember on Twitter soon after the hostage tragedy, her timeline was riddled with angry followers asking her in so many words what was she thinking!?! I thought Maria handled it with much grace and control, responding when she needed to, when it was a new question that she had yet to answer, and ignoring the redundant and the rhetorically angry.

this also isn’t to say that this was all good, or that we agreed all the time with the way the news was delivered/chosen/spun by ABS-CBN under Maria’s watch. this is to say that in truth there were such real and palpable and concrete changes in news and current affairs, and in which case, there were also better conversations about politics, and more creative documentaries about this country.

of course there’s still i-witness on GMA 7 which is still the best local docu-show I continue to see, and there still is Cheche Lazaro Presents on ABSCBN, whose Vizconde Massacre feature last night was just wonderfully done. but really, where else would Storyline see the light of day, or Strictly Politics, or Media in Focus? this doesn’t mean that we don’t complain about these shows, or that they are always without fault, or are always intelligently done. but this is to say that these are wonderful testaments to what can still happen for local news and current affairs, that we need not be stuck on CNN and BBC for better versions of the local.

in fact, under Maria’s watch, I remembered how I grew up with Randy David and Louie Beltran having their regular political and public affairs shows. yes, this was the time of public affairs versus current affairs, the time when relevance was still most important, versus just being news worthy. but that would be stuff for another blog entry.

here and now the question remains: but why? why let Maria Ressa go, what’s the real score here? though maybe we should be happy enough with, uh, tsismis being infinitely more interesting, even when – or maybe precisely because – it’s in relation to news and current affairs.

and as far as ABSCBN’s concerned?  I don’t think they fool anyone anymore given that the network’s the flagship of a Lopez empire. If anything, it has also become obvious that while they demand that politicians and government be transparent, they can only be farthest from being so themselves. now, in light of their maltreatment of workers finally becoming newsworthy, well, it’s easy to see how Maria’s notions of fairness and justice might not have worked in her favor after all.

so maybe she didn’t resign as damage control would like to point out, but this does feel like resignation, in the i-concede-my-hands-are-up kind of way. and Maria may deny it, but the rest of us can’t: the times when someone like her decides that it’s time to let go, it’s those times that we are forced to concede to the way things are or will inevitably become.

and for some reason, i have a sinking feeling that Maria’s leaving will mean having Kris Aquino back on TV, in what i imagine will be that past-publicized current affairs show. sana ‘wag na lang.

kultura

would you marry Robin Padilla?

a friend and twitter/facebook contact was asked this today. that he’s a boy apparently didn’t matter. right now of course, what we’re told is this: that what matters is love. Robin and Mariel have fallen in love and have gotten married, and as Tina Monzon-Palma attests, you can see it in their eyes.

and yes, we grant them love. that’s easy enough. do we grant them credibility? that is the question. and this is what the above question’s about.

so would i? marry Robin Padilla, i mean? well, i’d begin my answer with:

(1) that i understand his appeal, this bad boy action star dirty rugged image, the one that just works with his history as a bad boy, and the way his icon has been created/fashioned/rehabilitated/ revived so it may keep at being the quintessential Pinoy macho.

(2) which is connected to this: in the midst of metrosexuality as capital, his value as Pinoy macho has shot through the roof because there really is no one else like him. add to this the fact of a divorce from longterm wife Liezel, and tadah! binata na ulit si Robin. oh, the appeal of that! (yes, i’ve swooned elsewhere.)

but is he marrying material? interesting question. in truth it never seemed like Robin was married. ever. because when we imagine marriage, we imagine it in the sense that the husband doesn’t flirt on nationwide television with the women he’s paired with in movies and on tv. in the sense that he is loyal and a one-woman-man. in the sense that we don’t hear news of him getting it on with other girls while he’s married.

add to all this the layer of celebrity, the kind that has allowed them, the couple and their managers, to have a plan. this might be contrary to their press releases, but really, you can’t tell me that your wedding in India was a surprise even to you both, when all of it (including what I was wearing, nandon! Mariel squealed) is on the next issue of Starstudio Magazine. you cannot say that this is about a love that is private and only yours, when you were prepared for a photoshoot with obviously choreographed and staged poses at the Taj Mahal. i do not doubt that there’s love there, but also there’s celebrity. and there’s capital. there are obviously their careers, now bound together into one career that’s about the two of them.

the lowest point in all this of course, was the media’s bombardment of these images. i don’t care that the showbiz talkshows feature it again and again, or that it’s in the chikaminute segment on Saksi and showbiz news on TV Patrol. but to actually deem it as breaking news? in the midst of everything else that’s of national interest, goodness gracious, why o why?

realize that this isn’t about the public wanting to know about Robin and Mariel. it’s about news and public affairs departments deciding that this is important enough to give to the public right away.

anyone who knows me would know that i am all for love at first sight, for swift courtships and secret marriages. i am all for falling quickly and easily, because that does happen, and sometimes it does work. but to bombard us with this particular love, given the trappings it comes in? and to deem it as important and valuable as the aftermath of the hostage crisis, and P-Noy’s trip to the States.

ah, but undoubtedly the Robin and Mariel story meant ratings. the kind that P-Noy might not be getting? and in which case, good job media practitioner! good job on losing your credibility.

next time i want more relevant news, i’ll watch my showbiz talkshow.

komentaryo

one month of P-Noy: notes of a Pinay

the irony should not be lost on any of them, really. after all they’re the newly-created, seemingly hi-tech, and youthful (!) aspect of the Noy government, and as the communications group, they should know of the contradictions inherent in their mere existence.

they who are tasked with “communications” different and separate and new(?) from what we’ve seen as the office of the press secretary all these years. but save for putting up twitter and facebook accounts, and a website, we have yet to hear and see why this is important at all. ironically, they speak of this as if it’s a new and fancy creature that’s all about the Noy government’s notions of change. but really.

you do not need a whole office to create websites and accounts, nor do you need a whole bunch of new people who are purportedly adept at communicating. look at Gang Badoy’s Dear Noynoy. and really Manolo Quezon III’s (now member for the communications group) websites. it seems that all it would take is to hire techies for these sites, and then have Noynoy do the good things that are worth writing about.

but talk about this communications group inevitably leads to how we, the people, are this government’s new boss, and in which case, that this is one way to connect with the citizenry. true true. but really, you will respond to each and every citizen’s complaint? that Quezon and Ricky Carandang believe they can do this is the strangest of things; that they joined government for something that has yet to be defined and constructed and proven necessary (at this point!) is even stranger.

the truth is, you don’t need a whole office of three people to do this. you need a whole fluggin’ call center. I can complain to you easily about 40 horrid things that government in this country has done to me. I bet my parents will have double that, my brother maybe 30 because he’s been gone a while. add my one barkada of 4 people  x 40 complaints, another barkada of 4 x 40 complaints, and easily that makes 550 complaints.

and I tell you that these are the valid complaints, nothing on Kris (because they deem that irrelevant don’t they), and just one each on Hacienda Luisita (lest we be called the noisy minority that is the Left when the question should be: why aren’t your activists noisy to begin with?). I can tell you that mine will range from horrible facilities in the public schools I’ve studied in to corruption in education, from the convicted Aquino-Galman boys who have been suffering in jail for far too long, for something that they insist they didn’t do, to the hazy crazy fraternity wars that are all encompassing but which we don’t know a lot about. mine will come from my experiences as a teacher across the different universities, and as an activist teacher who spoke to real live public school teachers about their impoverished lives. mine will come from the violence I’ve experience at rallies, the violence inflicted on activists, and this continued violence: P-Noy refuses to put his foot down and Free the Political Prisoners!

the one thing I wish he would take from his mother, the one thing he doesn’t seem to want to do.

where does this communications group even begin to imagine the possibility of (1) responding to these complaints, (2) justly choosing which ones are “valid”, and (3) that we, the complainants, are the bosses here?

Quezon though points out a more complex job, and this one is infinitely interesting:

“My specific functions will focus on strategic planning in terms of messaging (including market research and polling), as well as editorial aspects of official communications, which in turn ranges from editorial guidelines and policies in general, to the Official Gazette in particular (bringing it from the 20th to the 21st century), to corporate identity and institutional memory.”

if messaging is the task, then please begin with taking down those billboards and tarpaulins with Noynoy saying “Mabuhay ang Mabuting Pilipino!” it’s uncomfortable to be told by my president longlive the good Pinoy, when it’s entirely possible that i will not be considered as such given his standards. same goes for those tarpaulins with Noy and Binay saying “Kayo ang Boss Namin.” as if naman. to have these slogans on the streets makes it seem like hard sell, and really, like it is a lesson being ingrained in our heads. is it suppose to make us feel good about this government? i’d feel good about a government that wasn’t spending on billboards and tarpaulins, to tell you the truth.

too, given advertising on our streets alongside the remnants of Bayani Fernando: pink and blue fences, footbridges, toilets! they must realize that sometimes it’s a reminder of what’s just so wrong on our streets, the cleaning of which should’ve been the first thing done by government. with “Bawal Tumawid, Nakamamatay!”  or a Kris Aquino billboard selling appliances within sight, the Noy-Bi tarps and the Noy billboards just seem like advertisements too, that just might be as dangerous as crossing the streets of EDSA.

but maybe this isn’t the point? because there’s also the editorial aspect of it, speechwriting (ooh, how they celebrated after the SONA ‘no?), and the creation of identity. which seems ironic really, as we all know what kind of identity this presidency wants to establish: that of being less than liable for the state of the nation. after all they just began by pointing a finger at who’s responsible for this mess, and throwing the ball on our court: Noy can’t do this alone, we must begin with ourselves.

which is all true, but haven’t we all been helping this country all this time? i pay my taxes, follow the law, involve myself in issues in many ways all this time, and yet. it takes two years for me to get my SSS benefit, i had to put out more than an old business was earning just to renew my permits, have dealt with too many a corrupt public official. i’ve suffered in the face of the civil service code, have been oppressed by both the public and private school system, have lived with very little and delayed pay, and almost no benefits. i have suffered because of the lack of a reproductive health bill that protects the mother, that makes medical institutions more respectful of women’s rights to decide on their and their baby’s lives.

having lived through this, as many others have lived longer with it, there’s nothing in the messages that this government has sent that relieves me, or makes me hopeful. the small solutions – catch a tax evader here, a tax evader there – aren’t what will make me proud. it’s the bigger ones. revise the system, revise the aspects of it that fail to work. talk about education and what it is that two private school officials (Fr. Luistro for Dep Ed and Licuanan for CHED) would know of the public school system that is in the throes of corruption, literally and figuratively. and really, the Aquino sisters giving away school supplies doesn’t solve a thing. not one thing.

or maybe all the communications group needs to begin with is this: try and be more credible. because saying that Ricky Carandang was to begin with on Noynoy’s side, even when he was working as a journalist in ABS-CBN, has debunked altogether the whole network’s press releases about being unbiased throughout the campaign and in the present. of course that has always been hard to believe about ABS-CBN, but the Carandang question adds another layer to this judgment of the Lopez-owned media empire, and its relationship with the Aquinos. sayang talaga the credibility that Maria Ressa had tried so hard to work on for the news and public affairs division.

oh well, but that’s their loss. of credibility, i mean. and of relevance. and of being seen as objective and critical actors in the newly staged performance that is the Noynoy presidency.

a badly-directed variety show circa 1990s for the inauguration? check!

interviews with image consultants and couturiers for Noy’s outfits? check!

writing the script for this show that seems to be on technical rehearsals within its 100 days? check!

a disbelieving citizen that wants to be surprised, has no institution to answer to, and is as independent as people come: check check check.