SOBRIETY IN BROADCAST MEDIA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

AS A BASICALLY print journalist, I must confess that I did not immediately understand the need for sobriety in broadcast media.

During the first few years of my journalism career, I wrongly thought and assumed that a broadcast journalist, to get public notice and a respectable share of broadcast audience, would have to create noise even in the most unsavory ways.

Talk on top of your voice. Shout the news. Don't hesitate to exaggerate. Or omit. Exaggeration and omission are two sides of the coin anyway. People likes to get thrilled. Broadcast journalists could be showmen too. 

Those were the prevailing orthodoxies. Even print journalists accepted the as gospel realities.

Until the Gulf War in the Middle East broke out on January 16, 1991. At that time, the Internet was not yet around. Very few areas in Metro Manila had cable TV. We had the free TV, but it was quite decent during those days. 

Free TV did not have those reisdents along dirty esteros and filthy railroad tracks as its only audience. It counted on the middle class as its main audience.

I immediately followed up the news on Geny Lopez's ABS-CBN, which had a CNN live feed. I was so mesmerized by the ability of modern technology to bring the Gulf War right in the living room of every home. 

During those days, CNN was lampooned as a news platform by many critics, calling it Chicken Noodle News that would only fail. They did not know that the digital age was unfolding to create a new world. 

Owner Ted Turner was absolutely correct in his choice of news platform. But this is only half of the story. 

The other half is my vivid recollection of the face of a middle-aged CNN anchor named Bernard Shaw, who did the annotation of the Gulf War. 

I saw how Shaw, a print mediaman recruited by CNN to do the crossover, did his job with utmost sobriety and professionalism. No, he was neither nervous nor disturbed by all those Stealth jet fighters, which crossed over Baghdad, and cruise missiles, which hit select targets there with precision. 

Neither did he resort to speculations and senseless sensationalism, which is a common practice among the ill-trained local broadcast people. 

From his hotel room there, Shaw in his baritone voice reported the start of the Gulf War with care, confidence, and calmness. 

In hindsight, which is always 20/20, I fully understood why he was so calm and composed amid those explosions that rocked Baghdad. He did not want to contribute to global panic. 

In hindsight too, what if that loudmouth and irresponsible Mike Enriquez did the reporting? I surmised that the shelves of those convenience stores and supermarkets in many countries would run out of supplies and commodities as their citizens engaged in mass panic buying. 

Or tens of thousands of people becoming dead or invalid as a result of heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. 

Reporting requires so much responsibility - and accountability, of course. 

Nervous wrecks, or motormouths but with brains as big as peas should not sit on radio or TV booths to do reporting. 

They only contribute to national disorientation or idiotization of our people.

On the second thought, motormouths are getting anachronistic in local broadcast media. They face competition from other media communications platform, including social media.

Hence, the expansion of media platforms is getting to be their toughest fight.