READING the online editions of the local dailies last Saturday, we got to read these headlines from three local dailies:
35 ‘narco-cops’ named in Serenio’s affidavits. Detainee kills self: police. City gov’t recovers stolen computer. Teachers hold silent protest on slow release of allowance. Volunteers trained on rescue of turtles. Minor dies, 13 injured in accidents. Suspected Meningo Death Probed BY PHO. ASCEP Church Schools Inter-Region Holds Induction of New Officers BACIWA. New Board Officers Vow to Continue the projects. No Date Yet of HFCS Probe – Gatuslao. SP OKs Renewal of Guv’s Consultants. San Carlos port used as drug entry point. All set for 12th Bacolaodiat fest. Court grants protective custody to ‘drug boss.’ Suspected meningo death probed.
The strangest thing was that only VoxPop Bacolod (SSB) bannered the headline “Ombudsman orders dismissal of Bacolod mayor, 9 others”. Congratulations to Merlinda A. Pedrosa and SSB editor Nanette L. Guadalquiver for this scoop of the year. Without fear nor favor news reporting comes to mind. Congratulations to the SSB news team!
Frankly, I find the non-news reporting on the Ombudsman decision on the Bacolod strange and disturbing. One would have thought the news would outcompeting one another for different angles to get a percentage of the local readership.
Well, their loss. In this age of the internet and social media, how can one hide the truth? Was the non-news reporting an attempt to repeat 1972 when Ferdinand E. Marcos forced news media outlets to close when he declared martial law?
I got news for the other local news dailies. Middle Eastern authoritarian regimes tried to suppress or curtail access to the internet and social media. In the end, their restive populations found a myriad of channels to filter the news to the global media and to connect with one another.
At the end, many of these regimes gave up and collapsed. The truth has indeed set the local population free.
The cat is already out of the bag. Now let’s see how local media will react on the ouster this Monday.
*****
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)
