An Appeal to Media Not to Pander

By Michael Henry Yusingco, LL.M

A couple of weeks ago our Editor-in-Chief posted this on Facebook: “But genuine journalists are not in the business of pandering just to be on everyone’s good side; we’re not waiters who serve your food the way you want it to be.” Lamentably, several national broadsheets have decided to take advantage of wealthy candidates willing to spend millions in their campaign and serve coverage in the way these dynastic politicians want it to be.

It is truly sad to see media being used as just another public relations tool in the campaign arsenal of traditional politicians or tradpols. Instead of being intrepid inquirers for voters, some publications opted to just constantly relay bulletins from moneyed candidates. Just utterly disheartening that for some media outlets, the revenue raised in the normal course of the election season is not enough. They have chosen to ignore the fact that the money paid to them by these tradpols will be reimbursed from the hard-earned contributions of taxpayers.

However, reporters and journalists do tend to simply regurgitate information produced by candidates. Maybe this is just laziness or simply being respectful to the interview subject. But in the sincere effort to show “all sides” of politicos, media is in a way helping the candidates more than the voters.  Indeed, it has become the norm to show voters the narrative dictated by politicians.

Back in the day, when there was no World Wide Web and no social media platforms, it was necessary for media to provide voters with as many details about candidates as the law and their principals would allow. But in the digital age, candidates themselves have been given their very own rostrums to showcase what they are all about. Notably, social media has also made these candidates widely accessible to voters. Consequently, their contrived narrative about their candidacy is already in the ether open for all to digest.

So, these days, journalists can be more discriminating about the information and insight they seek to elicit from candidates. There should be minimal queries about their background and qualification as these details are already available on their campaign website. The same is true with regards to the candidate’s platform and views on issues. Journalists should just touch on these matters as a prelude to a deeper dive to the candidate’s potential in public office.

Journalists need not dwell on the personal and wacky side of candidates as well because most of them already have a dedicated social media account for this very purpose. In fact, is it really media’s job to “humanize” politicians in the eyes of voters? This question is particularly relevant in our context given the propensity of dynastic politicians to lie to the public. Moreover, the tradpol way is all about being performative and image projection. Therefore, media could be utilized as an unwitting pawn in this crass campaign tactic.

The role of media now is to help voters get the information and insight that they cannot get on their own accord. Ask the questions voters cannot ask given the practical limitations. It is so easy for dynastic candidates to propose “bright ideas” during the campaign and sadly, voters can be hoodwinked. Just ask the 32 M who voted for the UniTeam. Journalists must confront the candidates offering the sun and the moon to voters. Media simply cannot leave campaign promises unchallenged.

For instance, many senatorial candidates make bold promises without considering the fact that the Senate is a collegial body. Same is true with Congressional aspirants. Journalists must challenge these candidates as to their recourse when they get stiff resistance from dynastic colleagues? What will they do if their measures are scuttled in the House of Representatives (or Senate) where mega dynasties dominate? Filing bills is just a part of the job of lawmaking. It is not the full measure of it.

Unravelling candidates this way can help voters determine those whom they can trust in public office and those they should totally discard at the polling booth. Remember that the expectation is for lawmakers to enact laws that address our problems. So, a huge part of the work involves building coalitions to push legislations through. Therefore, voters need to see from the candidates whether they have the wherewithal to meet this important job requirement. Journalists can be of tremendous help in this regard.

Note however, that media should also be wary of employing “gotcha journalism” or methods that are designed to entrap interviewees into making self-damaging statements. Journalists can, of course, make candidates uncomfortable with their pointing questions. And they can certainly discredit anything a candidate says during an interview (i.e. real time fact-checking). But targeting candidates to publicly shame them is not the work of real journalists. This behavior is more fitting for vloggers.