Noynoy should keep at it, the way he has been pounding on media about highlighting the good news, because he would not convince any legitimate journalist to see things the way he does, which is with blinders.
Noynoy attended last Friday the anniversary of a television news program and used the occasion to complain about what he called as out of place remarks of the program’s anchor, Noli de Castro, the former Vice President.
Talking of out of place comments, Noynoy was not exactly in the appropriate place to gripe about the bad rap he is getting from media and at the same time alluding to political color on De Castro’s commentaries since, according to Noynoy, “he was part of the administration” which Noynoy claims to have inherited problems from but which in turn he has been using for two years as scapegoat for what should be clearly his fault after two years in the presidency.
De Castro was the Vice President of Gloria, ergo, he was part of what he calls the crooked past that needs to be eradicated.
It was reminiscent of the pointed attacks Noynoy launched against former Chief Justice Renato Corona before his impeachment which was hatched from Malacañang.
It would not be surprising if from now on, De Castro would feel pressure from the Lopez group after Noynoy’s indication of displeasure on him since the Lopezes are known yellow patrons of the Aquinos.
The event was an occasion to highlight press freedom and Noynoy would have been better off discussing the urgency of having a freedom of information act rather than blowing his steam off on De Castro.
Noynoy’s grudges were out place since he seems to be lecturing De Castro on basic journalism which he is far from being qualified to comment on compared with De Castro who has been practicing the craft for so long.
Also it was not only De Castro but the whole media sector that he addressed in issuing the remarks about negative slants on news stories and it came off as a desire of Noynoy to manage the news.
The official reply of the network to Noynoy was that he was entitled to express his views the same way as news anchors can make their views known but coming from a President, the comment carried the weight of the government with it, thus the element of pressure is ever present on those addressed.
The accusations on De Castro injecting political color into his commentaries were particularly unfair since even before he became Vice President, he was already known to make his views known on critical issues, the reason, in the first place, for the rise in his reputation.
Commentaries on news stories are necessary to put it in context.
Noynoy does not know what he’s talking about in saying that the comment about the sad state of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 1 (NAIA 1) on a factual story of increased arrivals at the NAIA 3 was out of place. The subject of the commentary was the overall situation of the country’s airports as a whole.
Noynoy would complain in the past about unfavorable news stories in media being bits and pieces of a totality which is not being completely reported but is averse to reporting a negative whole and now insists on reporting positive bits and pieces.
Noynoy should stop lecturing media on how to do its job since not all journalists would allow being coopted and don his yellow stripes.
He should keep his jaundiced views to himself.