We don’t write scathing resignation letters

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you’re simply using a pen to record what you have thought out.”—Billy Collins

 

I CAN’T recall a single case where a newspaper writer or editor in Iloilo, or Western Visayas for that matter, has written a scathing resignation letter to the local publisher during his departure.

Not even in the national broadsheets, as far as I can remember, at least since democracy was restored after the EDSA Revolution in 1986.

In my time as a post-EDSA community journalist, I witnessed editors and writers, including myself and other regular columnists, transfer from one regional paper to another without any prejudice to the relationship with the publishers and coworkers in the publications we’ve worked with.

There were clashes in principles and political views, but personal and professional ties have remained intact even after the separations.

We never wrote resignation letters that would burn the bridges with our former media bosses and colleagues like New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, who recently published a scathing resignation letter she sent to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger on her personal website.

Weiss noted she doesn’t understand how toxic behavior is allowed inside the newsroom and “showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.”

Weiss wrote: “It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times.”

 

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She then explained that she joined the paper in 2017 to help offer a different perspective, as the Times’ “failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers,” and fixing that issue was critical.

“But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned,” Weiss wrote.

“Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”

Weiss lamented that “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times,” but social media acts as the ultimate editor.

 

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FOR many Filipinos, the broad daylight and “senseless” murder of ABS-CBN by the 70 congressmen in the House joint panels on July 10, was like a death of a family member.

The same melancholy is felt in the Filipino communities in other parts of the globe that used to wake up and go to bed monitoring the events in the Philippines and enjoying the programs in their TFC channel.

Many mothers, wives, grandparents, and children, in particular, had considered ABS-CBN as their household companion.

They regularly watched and listened to ABS-CBN’s public affairs program, news, entertainment like soap opera and noontime shows like they were doing their regular private and household chores.

All of a sudden, that important “member” of the family was gone but its nostalgia and good memories.

All of a sudden, the TV channel where they used to tune in to locate ABS-CBN during prime time, is now displaying a rainbow.

 

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Until now, many ABS-CBN lovers continue to mourn like they are in an actual vigil of the dead in the funeral homes.

Most of them find it hard to accept ABS-CBN’s sudden demise, and the insults and vitriol they hear from people who add insult to their injury are further helping deepen and exacerbate their sadness and agony.

They are aware most of those who hated ABS-CBN were probably motivated only by their canine loyalty and too much admiration for President Digong Duterte, not because they believed ABS-CBN was evil.

If Mr. Duterte did not declare a war against ABS-CBN, those bashers probably would never say a single bad word against the doomed broadcasting network.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)