Trashy TV Journalism

“The news is the message not the over-acting messenger…

Can Ted Failon, Kabayan Noli de Castro, and Mike Enriquez tone down their alarmist voice inflection for sobriety’s sake?..

Freedom of information is of course a double-edged blade. You can broadcast people who make fools of themselves. Or catch them when they show courage under fire. Objectivity in news reporting requires a certain degree of detachment.”

BY MINYONG ORDOÑEZ

Immorality is out-and-out trash. Watching it is like seeing dogs copulate inside a church. It’s a mixture of shame and glee.

No supreme social, professional, and political status can save the moral offender from loss of face and honor under the full glare of the global media. The whole thing stinks. It’s fodder for paparazzi journalism. No public relations outfit can turn moral disasters around.

Sex scandals, finance scams, and family betrayals have no etiquette. The current list of high end celebrity scandals is long: The beastly sex attack of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn on a hapless hotel chambermaid. Bernie Maddoff’s mega size embezzlement of investors’ money that shattered the integrity of Wall Street. Bill Clinton’s sex trips behind the oval office, complete with semen specimen on the girl’s underwear. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s adulterous forays that wrecked his family, devaluing the Kennedy progeny.

All scandals create a media festival on voyeurism and pornography delighting audiences with prurient or lascivious interest whether closeted or out in the sunlight. The longer the serialization, the hungrier the crowd. The right to privacy does not hold in retailing celebrity shenanigans. They always sell like hotcakes.

Positions of high status deserving impeccable trust from constituents or stakeholders have a rule of thumb on decorum. Bishops and priests are not supposed to loiter around red light districts and strip-tease joints. Bank CEO’s and managers are not allowed to meander in casino aisles much less sit at the poker table. Supreme Court justices and ambassadors are not supposed to banter in beer gardens and get tipsy on the third bottle and please, no pinching the behind of sexy waitresses. The president of the Philippines, the aging and loveless bachelor, must not be seen driving a high speed Porsche at NLEX. Even if precautionary measures—ambulances manned by paramedics and SUV’s full of palace security men—are all in place. No wang wang of course.

There are minor scandals that involve bad taste, such as the hula-hoop dance performed by a cute little boy in Willing Willie TV variety show. It was a mountain made out of a molehill by puritans and elitists who take wacky TV shows seriously and fell for his rivals’ campaign to portray him as a villain.

Trash scavenging is the fodder of speculative or rumor mongering talk shows involving film celebrities. Audience grabbers are scoops with juicy details on the indiscretions of married celebrities and their relationships on the rocks. Rumored pregnancies of unmarried stars scintillates. Here, TV’s top rating muckrakers Boy Abunda, Lolit Solis, and Cristy Fermin take the cake, the ratings, and advertising revenues in one bundle.

The most tactile scandal in my memory was Boy Abunda’s scoop on the nasty and lurid break-up of Kris Aquino and Joey Marquez (with details of gun toting and a sexually transmitted disease). Dignity dictates that scandals littered with unmentionables should be treated as a private matter. But to ABS-CBN’s judgment, the matter was of public interest, no matter how tacky it was hence the telecast. There’s nothing to gain for the viewers. Movie stars should keep their trash to themselves.

Disrespect for privacy or insensitivity over the death of a loved one is another subtle form of scandal. Paparazzi style TV newscasts feast on personal tragedies habitually. Prime examples were the executions of Filipino drug mules who violated China’s anti narcotic laws. Local TV reporters roam far and wide for weeks before and after the convicted Filipinos were put to death. Every relative, Juans, Pedros, and Joses told their sob stories on TV. Every drop of tear exacted, prolonging national grief to the point of nausea. We already got it the first time. We all knew it hurt. And we’ve said our prayers for the dead. Enough is enough! We cannot look like a nation of congenital weepers bereft of stoicism in confronting the facts of life.

I still remember with shock the ABS-CBN TV videos right after the tragic death of teen movie idol Rico Yan in Palawan. The grieving father of Rico, still in a state of shock, was on a plane accompanying the remains of his son. Suddenly a pale and anxiety-ridden Karen Davila thrust a microphone in front of Mr. Yan to solicit his feelings. Hello!?! His feelings!?! We all knew how Rico’s father felt. What he needs is solitude, the comforting sympathy of silence. Can’t news scooping wait, out of reverence for a Father’s grief?

Courage under fire is a more admirable scene to watch. Seeing cry babies wallow in tears in front of TV disturbs one’s equilibrium.
Philippine media, especially TV, must learn the value of restraint as a mark of professional maturity.

Freedom of information is of course a double-edged blade. You can broadcast people who make fools of themselves. Or catch them when they show courage under fire. Objectivity in news reporting requires a certain degree of detachment.

Is TV news capable of restraint?

Can Ted Failon, Kabayan Noli de Castro, and Mike Enriquez tone down their alarmist voice inflection for sobriety’s sake?

The news is the message not the over-acting messenger. Take a cue from the pro. The men and women at BBC.