Don’t shoot the messenger

“People see what they want to see and what people want to see never has anything to do with the truth.” — Roberto Bolaño, 2666

AS we commemorate the 37th Press Freedom Week, let me reiterate once again that journalism is not “friends” with anyone. Its practitioners may establish a certain rapport with their sources but they are in no way beholden to them. They are only beholden to the truth.

I have always found it awkward in news events when a press conference emcee blurts out the phrase “…our friends in media,” where the word “friends” is often made interchangeable with the word “partners.” I have since let that one go and not correct the emcee because I don’t want to be acting like an erect male member in such events. But truth be told, we are there for one thing only — the news or the news pegs that we could write about.

I remember ranting about it on my Facebook page and in a news event that night, a communications officer of city hall pointed out that we, reporters, were there for the news and clarified that we were not their “partners.” It was said in jest, of course, having established rapport with this person a long time ago and she understood where I was coming from since she used to dabble in journalism before joining the public office.

However, there are still people who think that our role is to parrot whatever it is they want to be reported. Let me respectfully remind these people that we are not in the business of taking dictations. We are not your PR people. While most of us use stenography notebooks, we are not stenographers.

I would like to present three cases in point where we in Gold Star Daily have been criticized over what they thought was reporting beyond what happened or for supposedly spinning events to fit our supposed “agenda.”

On Nov. 28, 2017, a colleague took offense in our news article “Priest kills man in Gusa road accident.” She said the headline was inaccurate and uncalled for. She suggested that we should have used the word “died” in lieu of the word “kill.” She further pointed out that by using the word “kill” painted a picture that it was premeditated on the side of the priest.

First, it is accurate to say that the priest killed a man because the man did not just die by the side of the road. The person’s motorcycle collided with the priest’s Ford Ranger. Second, we did put in our headline that it was, in fact, an accident. But I understood where my colleague was coming from. She is a devout Roman Catholic and her church affiliation may have clouded her point of view as a reporter.

On Saturday, Councilor Maria Lourdes Gaane was reported as singling out this paper because of a news article “Group asks city hall to fund Aids advocacy.” She described the front-page news as “uncalled for,” “unfortunate,” and “unethical.”

“But she did not elaborate,” contributing editor Uriel Quilinguing’s report reads in part.

For context, Quilinguing’s story reported on Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro Aids Network’s advocacy in time for the 33rd International Aids Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization last week.

It’s not like Quilinguing reported out of thin air. He quoted Mocan president Fritzie Caybot-Estoque as saying that although they were able to successfully lobby the City Council into enacting City Ordinance No. 11195, the ordinance was “not fully implemented due to lack of funding.”

Gaane could not elaborate on her tirade against the report simply because she could not. When you’re caught flatfooted, please don’t take it out on us.

Now, for the pièce de résistance. Colleagues and even a city councilor criticized our news article “Word ‘lobby’ baffles Unabia son: ‘What do you mean?’” which was published last Friday.

In the story, our correspondent reported on how newbie congressman-elect Christian Unabia took at least 11 seconds to answer a  question from a local broadcaster — what would he lobby in Congress when he assumes the 1st congressional representation of Misamis Oriental.

Colleagues pointed out that we were supposedly being “cruel” or “mean” to the neophyte solon as if we have maligned him in the article. They said that congressmen do not “lobby” bills but instead “propose” bills.

Please, don’t be naive, my dear friends. Of course, congressmen “lobby” for their pet bills among themselves. They do it all the time. “I scratch your back, you scratch mine,” as they say.

The context of the question hurled at the newbie was clear. Our reporter was only reporting on an incident that gives people an idea of the kind of people who have been voted into office. Would you rather that media did not report it only for you to wake up one morning surprised about the quality of bills this congressman would be pushing in the halls of Congress?

Let’s disabuse ourselves of thinking we can shoot the messenger once we do not get our way in a news report. It’s not that we cannot see past certain agenda. It is just pathetic, really. As I have said, when you’re caught flatfooted, don’t take it out on us. Just do your job and we’ll do ours. Pfft.