Category: Media

You can’t ban ‘fake news’ unless you also ban Eat Bulaga and Catholicism

October 6, 2017October 6, 2017 benign0 10 Comments

The Philippines is a paradise for con men and carpetbaggers. Because Filipinos lack a substantial foundation of principles to stabilise their journey through life, it is easy to use modern technology and basic persuasion techniques to herd them in different directions. It is a nation of 100 million people just asking to be milked of…

Media, Politics, Religion

Florin Hilbay’s ‘information police’ proposal reveals just how ignorant a society the Philippines is

October 5, 2017 benign0 9 Comments

Despite the length of the Senate inquiry on “fake news” and the amount of noise it generated, there was very little real insight that came out other than the realisation that information is “out of control” in the Philippines and, as a result, “the truth is dead” in its society. Yet, whilst a lot of…

Culture, Government, Media

Bam Aquino’s use of the CBCP list of ‘fake news’ sites proves public servants are under the Church’s influence

October 5, 2017April 4, 2022 Ilda 10 Comments

Something very disturbing occurred at the recent Senate hearing into the spread of fake news on the Net. First off, Senator Bam Aquino couldn’t hide his anger towards two pro-Duterte bloggers — Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson and RJ Nieto a.k.a. “Thinking Pinoy”. During the hearing, Aquino kept berating and questioning their credibility. He was…

Media, Politics, Religion

Philippine Senate inquiry on ‘fake news’ reveals how little people understand about REAL blogging

October 4, 2017October 5, 2017 benign0 17 Comments

Another non-surprise today. Cocoy Dayao, the man seemingly at the centre of a vast network of anti-government websites and blogs was a no-show at today’s Senate inquiry into “fake news”. Instead of Dayao, it was Malacanang bloggers RJ “Thinking Pinoy” Nieto and Assistant Secretary for Communications Mocha Uson who had to stand under the harsh…

Media, Politics

To make #CocoyGate go away, just throw #SilentNoMore, #PinoyAko and Cocoy Dayao under the bus

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017 benign0 2 Comments

Some perhaps would call Silent No More and Pinoy Ako “blogs”. But that’s really just using a very loose definition of the term. The writing style of these two sites make their trashy posts more akin to adolescent Twitter tweets unchained from the 140-character limit. They don’t really fit the criteria of well-structured work befitting…

Media, Politics

#CocoyGate: The Amazing Issues On-and-Off Switch used by Yellowtard ‘thought leaders’!

October 3, 2017 benign0 3 Comments

It is hardly surprising that the very same “fake news” that the Philippine Opposition had been screeching about over the last several months has suddenly become a non-issue. Selective “activism”, after all, is a Yellowtard expertise. Indeed, the list of “non-issues” kept by the Opposition (led by the Liberal Party, a.k.a. the “Yellowtards”) is growing….

Media, Politics

Philippine mainstream media in all-out effort to bury #CocoyGate ‘fake news’ scandal!

October 2, 2017December 23, 2021 benign0 12 Comments

Back in October 2016, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa wrote about how an army of trolls have “weaponized the Internet” and that she is the protagonist in a “propaganda war” waged by an enemy that is “chipping away at facts, using half-truths that fabricate an alternative reality by merging the power of bots and fake accounts…

Media, Society

The CBCP became a source of ‘fake news’ when it published a list of ‘fake news’ sites

October 1, 2017October 1, 2017 benign0 17 Comments

This is in response to the list of “fake news” sites published by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) which included GetRealPhilippines.com. We did not respond to this initially because we thought it was too ridiculous to be taken seriously. The lack of a sound basis and coherent set of criteria applied to…

Media