WRONG JOURNALISM

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

This is an experience I’ve almost forgotten. I was about to consign it to oblivion, when I felt that the current situation required me to narrate it once more, if only for its latent wisdom.

Nearly five months ago, I attended a media forum and workshop, where participants were some journalism students from a downtown university, while the rest were a mixture of working journalists. The moderator, a seasoned journalist, who had worked in local dailies and now a journalism teacher in one of the better universities, opened the workshop by asking participants, particularly the students, their assessment of the current state of Philippine media.

A student in his early 20s immediately responded by declaring his frustration over what he described as the nature of new coverage. It’s too one-sided, he declared, but not to favor the current administration, which, at that time, was gaining international notoriety and condemnation for the growing spate of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

We were mostly inclined to accept his diatribes because it was his right to express his mind. But what surprised us was his sweeping generalization that the perceived lack of fairness to favor the government was caused by the machinations of what he termed as “dilawan,” or “yellow forces” in local mass media. He did not offer any proof. It was just one sweeping statement to reflect the thinking of many people, who support the incumbent president and his violent antidrug war, which is now being perceived as a war against the poor, or those people "with a pair of dirty feet."  

Not a few quizzical brows went up by such daring, sweeping generalization. It did not escape my attention either. As a journalist and teacher, I had to do my share to disabuse what I considered the student’s poisoned mind.  I did my share to explain. I spoke out of my commitment to truth.

Journalism has three basic tenets, I said. These are truth, balance, and objectivity, or fairness. Every journalism student should understand those basic tenets because everything revolves on these tenets, I said.

Truth is the journalist’s fundamental commodity, as he goes out and competes in the marketplace of ideas, I said. Of course, I express my indignation at the sweeping generalization that if the news reports did not conform to his mindset, it was yellow and should be condemned.

Then, I went to explain media’s role as society’s watchdog. Mass media’s role is to report the truth. It works without an agenda. If ever it works to favor certain parties, then it becomes a propaganda machine, I said. It was my way to inculcate into the young man’s mind that mass media should not be a propaganda machine of the party in power.

As I explained mass media’s role, I could not help but take a dig on the kind of journalism education he was getting from the downtown university, the owners of which are known supporters of the incumbent president, and, of course, his teachers. Then, I summed p my discussions by telling him that mass media functions basically "to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted."

I could not help but frame my statement with the clarifying premise, saying “I don’t know what your teachers taught you in school and I don’t have any personal knowledge, but if I were your teacher, I would tell you … blah … blah … blah.”

Actually, I viewed the poor student as victim of prevalent mind-conditioning - or even mind-poisoning - that emanates from a growing culture of populism, where every issue should be settled by taking a short cut instead of engaging in the circuitous route premised on the twin principles of rule of law and due process.

The student hardly spoke as I explained the rudiments of journalism, which his teachers apparently deprived him in journalism school. I did not have to engage in any sophisticated discussions of the issue. I just stuck to the fundamentals.

Incidentally, it has been a habit among the president's rabid supporters to blame everything to the "yellow forces," which, at this point, have become some sort of a phantom enemy. 

If they were referring to the Liberal Party (LP), they should at the very least know that the LP has been emasculated by mass defections to the ruling PDP-Laban and the "Super Majority" in Congress.

Blaming everything to the Yellows is easy. It is the product of a lazy mind. Engaging in that sweeping accusation is a function of monumental ignorance and stupidity.