National Press Club, Your Freudian Slip Is Showing

freudian slip freud·i·an slip

Noun:
An unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings.

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We don’t know anything for sure (is that libel) but a Freudian slip is what seems to have happened . The National Press Club initially said that the libel portion of  the Cybercrime Act was “society’s weapon against bloggers”.  They had since retracted that statement. Make no mistake that they made no mistake. Their choice of word was intentional.

The short version of it is that cyberspace has given more people a voice into our mixed up world. No more taking a press release at face value with your only guide being an op/ed the next day written by somebody whose opinion might be compromised by various things. The NPC is fearful that further questions may show a money trail from politicians to their most visible members. When somebody defends the indefensible with their journalistic voice they are either a family member or bribed like nuts. Then where  will the NPC be? Not sure why they resent “bloggers” so much when it was one of their own that compared a 50 year old with zero accomplishments to Aragorn of LOTR fame. Is that libel?

You read enough of anyone’s opinion and eventually you will get a feel for what makes them tick. If they are employed by the same medium that they are pontificating on , guaranteed that there are some commercial aspects that are factored into whatever message they are conveying.

You really believe ABS CBN and Inquirer are there to inform and educate their audience? They are there to serve the agenda of their owners. Money is always in the agenda. I have nothing against capitalism though I do have something against stupidity.  This is the  Philippines. Audiences that advertisers crave are not lured by content of cerebral nature.

I did a GRP piece once on the stupidity of Inquirer headlines. My personal theory is that the stupidity in the headlines is there to draw away attention from certain erudite columnists with spectacular claims heaped on a very unspectacular individual .  To those that formulate the editorial policy and programming of ABS CBN specially during the 2010 election I have a question. By elevating a 50 year old non-achiever to a virtual ubermensch with all the media tools at your disposal, are you truly serving your country or yourselves ? Is that libel?

If you come to me for answers I truly pity you. Like I admit in my bio I am an MBA Sweathog. I don’t ever want you to read something I have poured my guts into and have you feel that you have all the answers or I have all the answers. What I rather you do while you read me is ask more questions from what is being shoved down your throat.   Agree with me, disagree with me but please don’t take mainstream media at face value. For the most part they are compromised doorknobs doing the bidding of rich doorknobs. Is that libel?

“Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world’s champions.”  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (1922-2007)

 

News outlets in this country have been made less relevant with the new technology. Now more than ever people with a few keystrokes can be exposed to thoughts , processes and results beyond what you see in your immediate vicinity. Specially if what is in your immediate vicinity is mediocre.  That is how I feel about our journalism in this country . At least that shortfall has motivated me in a small way to probe further and invite others along in my personal quest to cut through the rubbish being served as health food by our local media.  I think the NPC got it all wrong. Bloggers are not a menace to society that they require some Orwellian piece of legislation to minimize their damage. Bloggers are society’s weapon against institutions that made legends out of bums. Bloggers can be like the little kid telling the “adults” look the emperor has no clothes ( and no hair).  Is that libel?

20 Replies to “National Press Club, Your Freudian Slip Is Showing”

  1. Money is not in the agenda – it is the agenda.
    Mainstream print media devotes more space to advertisers than news, employ low paid low skilled journalists who do as they are told, use ‘envelope journalism’ to either print or suppress a story, and focus on trivia rather than court antagonism by running investigative pieces.
    Even if it is an unruly child sometimes, democracies accept and recognise the role of the internet.
    Ironic how hypocrites here peddle people power when the last thing they want is for the masses to be aware and have a meaningful voice.
    The view of admin/senate/congress is ‘voters are useful once every few years, but you wouldnt want to have a drink with any of them, or god forbid your daughter marry one of them’

  2. I fully agree with the author. What drives the mass media is profit and not service for the people.

    Thus, it is not surprising that the NPC had become the National Peso Club and when the election season comes, it gets to be known as the National Politicians’ Club.

  3. Ed,
    Mainstream media don’t want competition. Just like another antiquated institution, they’re struggling to find their relevance in a rapidly advancing world. They still think that they’re the lone and absolute authority on “truth”.

    Is that libel? So sue me.

  4. Thanks, all. Again whether it’s the president or the NPC, if they just allegedly kept their cool and pretend nothing bothers them it will go away. But they insist on showing their hand.

  5. Libel is the weapon of Fear of these Politicians, who have many scandals to hide from their own people. Dictators muzzle the Press, to hide their crimes from their people. If the NPC is the cahoot of the Aquinos and the corrupt politicians, to hide the truth. Then, we are now all in trouble. The Nazi German Holocaust happened, because Hitler, ordered the German Press to print only good things in his Nazi regime. The Soviet Union “Gulags” happened. Because Stalin, ordered the “Pravda” to print lies. Is this what the Aquinos want?

    1. That is exactly what they want. Jojo Robles pretty much said the same thing. Noynoy is so partisan and divisive and petty and onion skinned. Of course someone I know here will disagree. I had no idea 2 1/2 years ago it would be this bad this fast. Not many call BSA out on it.

  6. Bloggers are society’s weapon against institutions that made legends out of bums. Bloggers can be like the little kid telling the “adults” look the emperor has no clothes and no hair). 

    emperor has no clothes
    I don’t wholly subscribe to that. Mainstream media is not perfect but, like media in other countries, it is not all that bad. We may not like what some of them do and say but it ‘s on us to patronize them or not. There are alternatives and choices that we can pick on and be contented with with what we want to read and agree on. In spite of that, I still prefer to get information from the media than to the bloggers on the web.

    Without a doubt, media is more responsible and can be held to account on its acts that may be detrimental to another party. The same cannot be said of bloggers, who, for the most part, are merely opinion makers subject to standards of those who control the blogs. And we all know what kind of standards this blog administrators are capable of making.

    One can only claim ‘bloggers are society’s weapon against institutions’ if one can show proof that they really fit the bill. So far, I have yet to read an expose of corruption or any wrongdoing in the past or in the present that originated from independent bloggers. I have yet to read information that maybe classified as highly valuable that shook an institution of the government to its core. So fa,r nada. Not even a small bureau. In fact, what we get from these bloggers are adulterated ideas, biased opinion, self-serving declaration, one-sided assessment, twisted logic, wrap mindset and perverted views of the issues and the world. Don’t get me wrong, there are some bloggers who can stand up on their own and engage anyone on a decent discourse. But they’re just a sprinkle in the web universe.

    Also, unlike media practitioners, bloggers were mainly pseudonym soldiers. They sign in on handles which are usually made on the basis of whim and caprice rather than personal identification. And that speaks of how serious or important accountability is taken by these people.

    1. In spite of that, I still prefer to get information from the media than to the bloggers on the web.

      And yet here you are day in and day out commenting away. Oh I forgot…you could be here because you are just forced to. Participating here could be part of your job, which you have to do grudgingly.

      Now that is a sad and sorry situation to be in. 😉

  7. jona-s, I think these bloggers are just exercising their freedom. Freedom of expression the same as the administration paying some media to broadcast only the good. 😉

    1. Patriotic, I agree with you on that and it is also possible that your suspicion that the administration is paying some media for propaganda.

      There is really no hard and fast rule when it comes to those things. Media people are not saints and neither the bloggers.

  8. Let’s assume that there is at least some bribery going on somewhere by Mr. Core U. Politician. Let’s say he want to manipulate public opinion. He will get more bang from his corruption buck by paying someone who writes opinions for the Inquirer and not GRP or AP or the old FV etc. Again you can’t paint with a broad brush but which group is more likely tainted? There’s the rub. Is that libel??

    1. Ministry of Truth is alive and well here in GRP. Look at the trolls. Echoing the rhetoric of Malacanang. Blame Gloria for everything and Noynoy is fighting corruption to his last breath. Thanks for reading misstinapie.

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