'Inside' stories
'Inside' stories
Posted 00:38am (Mla time) Feb 12, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
HERE'S a clarification sent by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs head Luchi Cruz Valdes to the column item on the "handling" by their network of the story on Baron Geisler, a "Kapamilya" talent who figured in the headlines after getting involved in a vehicular accident while he was obviously "under the influence."
It was a producer, not a reporter, who forgot to log the story and footage in, said Luchi, which resulted in the failure of "TV Patrol," its prime-time newscast, to air the story. This failure, in turn, led to much speculation on the "real" reasons the network kept the lid on an incident involving one of its talents.
But, to be fair, Luchi asserts that ABS-CBN did air a story on Geisler's accident on "Magandang Umaga Bayan," an early morning magazine show, and on "Insider," the late evening newscast, on the same day the story broke. (I don't know, maybe I just missed the story when I was monitoring "Insider" precisely to check what "spin" ABS-CBN would give a negative story involving one of their own.) "TV Patrol" also made an "updated" version of the story the next day, "para maka-bawi," said Luchi, but the story still failed to air because the day's newscast had run overtime.
* * *
A PREVIOUS obligation compelled me to leave before the close of "Media Nation 2," a national summit of the media held last weekend in Tagaytay, so I'm not privy to the final agreements and statement. One of the more prominent suggestions, aired frequently during the summit, though, was the creation of a "media beat" among the country's news organizations, where developments and issues within the media industry would be covered, analyzed and discussed.
If I remember right, Dave Celdran, executive producer at ANC, the ABS-CBN 24-hour news channel on cable, even offered to produce a show precisely on this concept.
A "media beat" seems timely, especially on TV news coverage since the intense competition between ABS-CBN and GMA Network, the two broadcast giants that comprise what some participants in the summit had dubbed the "duopoly" reigning over our airwaves, has seeped into the way they report on events and personalities. As I pointed out in an earlier column, the coverage given to showbiz personalities who find themselves in the news often depends on what stable they belong to. ABS-CBN reports tend to come down hard on GMA Network talents and vice-versa.
ABS-CBN, though, seems to have more than its talents' welfare to consider in its news coverage. Being part of the Lopez Group of Companies which has interests in public utilities and with many of them embroiled in controversies like rate hikes, the station is hard put to dispel viewers' suspicions regarding its angling of stories on, say, power rates and Meralco. ABS-CBN employees in the summit didn't even bother to conceal the fact that their bosses do tend to have a special interest in stories affecting the family's business interests. But as one producer pointed out: "I personally haven't been told anything other than to make sure the story is balanced," and that "they" are allowed to make their side aired.
* * *
SOMETIMES, though, people tend to read more into decisions made by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs than is warranted by the actual events.
Even before "Media Nation 2" opened, most of the participants had already received text messages decrying the decision of higher management, Luchi Cruz Valdes in particular, not to air a segment of the public affairs show "Correspondents" that devoted an entire episode to the labor strife in Hacienda Luisita. According to the text messages, Kris Aquino, a top ABS-CBN talent whose maternal side of the family owns Hacienda Luisita, used her influence to have that particular segment "killed."
When a participant brought up this allegation, Luchi felt compelled to dive into the background that led to this decision of hers.
The segment was devoted to allegations, already written about extensively by Larry Henares, for one, in his columns in the Inquirer many years ago, that the wealth of the Cojuangcos can reportedly be traced to the relationship between Isidra Cojuangco and Philippine revolutionary Gen. Antonio Luna. Luna supposedly left either gold bars or the Katipunan's payroll in Isidra's keeping, but the spinster-aunt of the senior Cojuangcos is accused of using the treasure she was given to buy Hacienda Luisita and set off her clan on the road to becoming one of the country's richest clans.
As Luchi tells it, the trouble with the story as it was prepared for "Correspondents," was that it was based purely on allegations (through interviews with Henares and former National Archives director Ric Manapat), and "merely" quoted off-cam National Historical Institute director (and Inquirer columnist) Ambeth Ocampo who expressed skepticism about the story's provenance. "Lack of balance and paltry research" were thus the real reasons for the story's axing.
* * *
THESE stories alone would seem to justify a "media beat" that would address not just issues involving the credibility of the various news media, but also provide media consumers the "inside story" behind the coverage of particular stories, including how "scoops" are scored, or when there are allegations of wrongdoing or outside falsehood in the gathering of a "hot" story.
A "media beat" might also provide the often-banal and unexciting reality behind accusations of "censorship" or bias. We in the media are often accused of having no qualms about exposing the rotten underbelly of other institutions, while being over-sensitive and defensive when faced with criticism about our own profession.
And when we refuse to adopt transparency in our industry, our audience has proven it has no qualms about inventing its own stories about us.
Posted 00:38am (Mla time) Feb 12, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the February 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
HERE'S a clarification sent by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs head Luchi Cruz Valdes to the column item on the "handling" by their network of the story on Baron Geisler, a "Kapamilya" talent who figured in the headlines after getting involved in a vehicular accident while he was obviously "under the influence."
It was a producer, not a reporter, who forgot to log the story and footage in, said Luchi, which resulted in the failure of "TV Patrol," its prime-time newscast, to air the story. This failure, in turn, led to much speculation on the "real" reasons the network kept the lid on an incident involving one of its talents.
But, to be fair, Luchi asserts that ABS-CBN did air a story on Geisler's accident on "Magandang Umaga Bayan," an early morning magazine show, and on "Insider," the late evening newscast, on the same day the story broke. (I don't know, maybe I just missed the story when I was monitoring "Insider" precisely to check what "spin" ABS-CBN would give a negative story involving one of their own.) "TV Patrol" also made an "updated" version of the story the next day, "para maka-bawi," said Luchi, but the story still failed to air because the day's newscast had run overtime.
* * *
A PREVIOUS obligation compelled me to leave before the close of "Media Nation 2," a national summit of the media held last weekend in Tagaytay, so I'm not privy to the final agreements and statement. One of the more prominent suggestions, aired frequently during the summit, though, was the creation of a "media beat" among the country's news organizations, where developments and issues within the media industry would be covered, analyzed and discussed.
If I remember right, Dave Celdran, executive producer at ANC, the ABS-CBN 24-hour news channel on cable, even offered to produce a show precisely on this concept.
A "media beat" seems timely, especially on TV news coverage since the intense competition between ABS-CBN and GMA Network, the two broadcast giants that comprise what some participants in the summit had dubbed the "duopoly" reigning over our airwaves, has seeped into the way they report on events and personalities. As I pointed out in an earlier column, the coverage given to showbiz personalities who find themselves in the news often depends on what stable they belong to. ABS-CBN reports tend to come down hard on GMA Network talents and vice-versa.
ABS-CBN, though, seems to have more than its talents' welfare to consider in its news coverage. Being part of the Lopez Group of Companies which has interests in public utilities and with many of them embroiled in controversies like rate hikes, the station is hard put to dispel viewers' suspicions regarding its angling of stories on, say, power rates and Meralco. ABS-CBN employees in the summit didn't even bother to conceal the fact that their bosses do tend to have a special interest in stories affecting the family's business interests. But as one producer pointed out: "I personally haven't been told anything other than to make sure the story is balanced," and that "they" are allowed to make their side aired.
* * *
SOMETIMES, though, people tend to read more into decisions made by ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs than is warranted by the actual events.
Even before "Media Nation 2" opened, most of the participants had already received text messages decrying the decision of higher management, Luchi Cruz Valdes in particular, not to air a segment of the public affairs show "Correspondents" that devoted an entire episode to the labor strife in Hacienda Luisita. According to the text messages, Kris Aquino, a top ABS-CBN talent whose maternal side of the family owns Hacienda Luisita, used her influence to have that particular segment "killed."
When a participant brought up this allegation, Luchi felt compelled to dive into the background that led to this decision of hers.
The segment was devoted to allegations, already written about extensively by Larry Henares, for one, in his columns in the Inquirer many years ago, that the wealth of the Cojuangcos can reportedly be traced to the relationship between Isidra Cojuangco and Philippine revolutionary Gen. Antonio Luna. Luna supposedly left either gold bars or the Katipunan's payroll in Isidra's keeping, but the spinster-aunt of the senior Cojuangcos is accused of using the treasure she was given to buy Hacienda Luisita and set off her clan on the road to becoming one of the country's richest clans.
As Luchi tells it, the trouble with the story as it was prepared for "Correspondents," was that it was based purely on allegations (through interviews with Henares and former National Archives director Ric Manapat), and "merely" quoted off-cam National Historical Institute director (and Inquirer columnist) Ambeth Ocampo who expressed skepticism about the story's provenance. "Lack of balance and paltry research" were thus the real reasons for the story's axing.
* * *
THESE stories alone would seem to justify a "media beat" that would address not just issues involving the credibility of the various news media, but also provide media consumers the "inside story" behind the coverage of particular stories, including how "scoops" are scored, or when there are allegations of wrongdoing or outside falsehood in the gathering of a "hot" story.
A "media beat" might also provide the often-banal and unexciting reality behind accusations of "censorship" or bias. We in the media are often accused of having no qualms about exposing the rotten underbelly of other institutions, while being over-sensitive and defensive when faced with criticism about our own profession.
And when we refuse to adopt transparency in our industry, our audience has proven it has no qualms about inventing its own stories about us.
posted by Dante at 12:38 AM
1 Comments:
I have been looking for the article about Isidra Cojuangco. I read it before but I want to read it again. do yiou ahve a copy?
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