Our previous post, “CCPC docu stirs up a nest of a wrong hornet”, got a comment from someone who calls himself/herself kinsay kurap.
While you may view this at the comments section of the post, onion-skinned believes that only by elevating the comment into a separate post can we do justice to a thoughtful, thought-provoking and obviously carefully crafted piece.
Here it is:
“We all agree that making reporters look corrupt by holier-than-thou editors behind the video on alleged media corruption is wrong. It is morally and ethically wrong.
“Please allow me to put in my two cents worth. I don’t have a blog and I hope this will be published in toto in your popular blog:
“1. The video has unleashed a storm that first threw mud at reporters last week and is resulting in reporters readying something more than mud against all the other members of the Cebu media in general. Kinsay kurap, everybody are asking with each finger pointing at everybody else. LOL!
“2. Before everybody gets muddied all over along with bloody noses, let us take a closer look at the video itself which started this. The sources are now complaining they were quoted out of context. They did not blame the reporters. However, the scriptwriter and the editor made them look as if they were condemning the reporters. The reporters are now up in arms, not against the video producers-editors-scriptwriters, but against the sources whose statements were spliced in such a manner that made them the bad guys.
“3. Looking back at what happened to our television colleague caught splicing a video of a drunk police officers years ago, we know that such a practice is intrinsically unethical. A spliced video, which only presents a part of reality to fit a legacy or political agenda or both, should have not been part of Cebu media’s celebration of Press Freedom Week. At the very least, it has created division and disunity. It defeated our objective of showing the world our Cebu media unity.
“4. Once we look at the issue by examining how the video was made in the first place, we will see that it has done great injustice to the sources and its targets which includes Capitol, the reporters in general, and the viewing public who were fed slanted information apparently to fit into an agenda we all still need to figure out. It also is unfair to all editors and columnists who are now becoming targets although they have no hand whatsoever with the making of the video because only a small but elite clique is behind it.
“5. In your earlier posts, it is clear that you know the identities of the members of this clique who belongs to the so-called Saturday Club and the smaller core called the Wednesday and Friday Group. Isn’t it only proper for everybody to focus on the capers of this clique first like why they unleashed on Cebu media and the public a maliciously spliced and slanted video on corruption? Is it for legacy’s sake ala Plaridel? Or is it political because I noticed how attention was pointed at the free food at the Capitol and not on, for example, Cebu City Hall?
“6. On the other hand, whether it involves everybody or this small clique, it is not good for Cebu media and all Cebuanos for local journalists to wash dirty linen in public. It is our collective reputation and credibility were are all bludgeoning to death. Let the institutions we set up like the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) and the KBP work silently to rid Cebu media of corruption. If these institutions have proven inadequate, let us set up more potent cleansing systems.
“7. It is very unfortunate that this intrinsically flawed video has been produced in the first place. Like products with factory defects, it is only proper for its producers to recall the video and issue the appropriate apologies to all that has been hurt needlessly.
“To close this comment, I would like to repeat this message to the video producers. Recall the video. Issue a public apology.”
onion-skinned.com 
Media corruption stories through the decades
The leaders of Cebu media should be worried by now about the kind of stories being circulated by word of mouth among new and veteran journalists after they produced the controversial video on media corruption. The video has opened up Pandora’s Box. The rest of Cebu media wanted these stories to be part of another video with the title “The Other Side of Media Corruption.” Just to give readers of this blog an idea of the stories:
1. The motive behind the video is the quest for another award by an aging media leader at the expense of Cebu media. The reporter who conducted the interviews for the video documentary had admitted through text messages and explanations with fellow reporters on how the product of his work was unethically circumcised beyond recognition at the expense of the sources for the documentary.
2. A top editor and media leader asked a reporter to protest an activity of the Press Freedom Week many years ago. It turned out the top editor and media leader only wanted a P50000.00 share of the sponsorship budget for the activity to fund his book project. The book project was aimed to enshrine him as a top Cebu media leader.
3. While the rest of the Cebu media community have to contend with winning cell phones during press conference raffles, a leading clique of media leaders each secretly received top of the line cell phones. Guess who are they?
4. Cebu sports writers have long heard of what is now an open secret in the world of cockfighting in Cebu. Money to the tune of P10000.00 a week is changing hands to ensure the publication of derby schedules in one daily tabloid. Ironic that the young point person in this caper is a member of Cebu media’s Wednesday and Friday clique. Why has the paramount leader condoned this?
5. During the early 90s, the staff of a newspaper signed a document on media ethics. Shortly after, appliances from a senator were delivered to a top editor right at the newspaper office. Who is this top editor? Too bad, the late Vic Canoy cannot anymore talk about this issue.
6. At a time of Freedom Marches led by Inday Nita Cortes-Daluz when the image of the dictator was at its lowest in Cebu, a leading editor convinced his editorial staff to join a new newspaper to be published by a Marcos crony who was a kingmaker in Cebu. The top editor was able to entice writers identified with the opposition. During the late Marcos years, he enjoyed freebies at the plush Cebu Plaza Hotel and in trips to Manila to keep pro-Marcos stories flowing.
7. Right after the restoration of democracy in 1986, members of a labor union at then Cebu Plaza Hotel found a document at the office of a known Marcos crony. The document listed those who received payola from the crony during the snap elections. A reporter wrote about this. The issue was even included in a journalism book. Guess the identity of one prominent editor included in the list.
8. It is ironic that a leading beneficiary of benefits during the Marcos years when press freedom was suppressed and mangled is now recognized as a leader of the celebration of Cebu press freedom. He now wants to be recognized for his legacy as a champion against media corruption by shrewdly blaming reporters as corrupt with the use of his slanted video documentary.
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