THERE has been much ado about the supposed man-eating sharks off the coast of Molugan, El Salvador City in Misamis Oriental.
I will not go into the details of this tale anymore since almost everybody, including veteran reporters, gobbled up the “scoop,” hook, line, and sinker.
To be sure, all news reports about the fantastic story on an unfortunately “slow news” day cite Joel Caballa, a Bantay Dagat volunteer from El Salvador.
Caballa, when the tale broke out based on what he supposedly witnessed at sea, conveniently failed to mention that he was also a volunteer reporter of a local FM radio station with an AM news format.
Curiously, this is not the first time that radio stations inadvertedly induced panic among Kagay-anons through irresponsible reporting.
Apparently, some radio stations will report anything without the benefit of validating or vetting the information from their “volunteer” reporters.
In 2011, days after “Sendong” ravaged this city, one radio station issued a tsunami alert that left gullible Kagay-anons scampering to higher grounds. You can’t blame their listeners to behave the way they did even though it is common knowledge that tsunamis occur after earthquakes.
The same radio station endangered fellow reporters and city troopers when their reporter broadcast live on air the position and strength of the police pursuing the alleged assassins who waylaid the convoy of Iligan Rep. Vicente “Varf” Belmonte, last year.
I understand that “citizen reporting” is a fad among broadcast stations across the country. However, big networks like ABS-CBN’s Bayan Patrollers have continuing seminars and trainings on the rudiments and ethics of reporting. Until a local radio station that has a roster of veteran broadcast journalists as bosses, starts teaching its volunteer reporters how to report responsibly, the dial on my portable radio will never touch the inverted “number of the beast” frequency.
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