The other day, I came upon a shocking news headline on FaceBook, “George W. Bush Arrested for Cocaine Possession.” It was datelined Dallas, Texas, July 24, 2014. Intrigued, I read on:
“One of the most notorious Presidents in the history of The United States of America is back in the spotlight, but not because of his politics. George W. Bush was arrested in a Dallas suburb late Tuesday evening after a routine traffic stop uncovered over an ounce of cocaine in his glove compartment.
“Dallas police say they pulled over Bush after he made a right turn without signaling. Officers report they were surprised when seeing it was the ex-president, but felt something was off about his behavior. They say Bush seemed under the influence of a narcotic, and the officers on-scene asked to search the car. Curiously, Bush consented, and police found the narcotics.”
My journalistic instincts prompted me to verify the report. Thank heavens for Google and other search engines, one no longer needs to go to the newspaper morgue or call up a clipping service to dig up information. Apparently, the Bush “arrest” had attracted enough worldwide attention to also prompt responsible media entities to check it out. It was subsequently confirmed as a hoax:
“Claims in Report are False—Comes From Fake-News Site, Empire News. – George W. Bush has not been arrested for possessing cocaine. The story is a work of fiction published via the fake-news outlet Empire News. Nothing published in Empire News should be taken seriously. In recent months, the site has been responsible for a series of false reports that have circulated virally via social media and email.
“In recent years, an increasing number of fake-news websites have appeared online. The sites generally consider themselves as satirical and present their fictional stories in news format. Because the articles look like genuine news reports, many people tend to believe the claims and share the stories as true.
“Before sharing any strange or unusual ‘news’ stories that come your way via the Internet, it is wise to check their veracity by checking legitimate news sources. If true, stories such as the arrest of a former president will be well covered by the mainstream media and should be easy to find.”
But what happens when ”mainstream media” are the ones feeding stories (or printing stories fed by others) that have just a grain of truth to make them sound genuine? What happens when the “legitimate press” begins to habitually indulge in yellow journalism?
For those who are young, “yellow journalism” has nothing to do with Cory Aquino’s favorite color. This was a term used to describe the contents of tabloids that proliferated in Metro Manila in the 50’s. Bearing such eye-catching names as News Behind The News, Bullseye, The Eye and Manila Confidential, the tabloids specialized in all the news not fit to print. The editors and reporters never allowed the facts to get in the way of their fiction.
In those days, another term was in popular use among reporters: “Salsalin mo. Masturbate it.” In other words, if you did not have enough facts to fill your piece of newsprint, just make them up. Better yet, use someone with name recognition to lend it credibility.
If you think the days of yellow journalism are gone, think again. Masturbating the news is as common today as it was in the 50s. Like the tabloids then, today’s “legitimate press” will not settle for a bland and colorless lead like, “President Aquino prefers not to get involved in the current senate investigation…etc.”
The headline in the Philippine Daily Indigestion has to be more sensational: “Aquino slams door on palace meddling in Senate probe.”
Note the very showbiz difference between “not wanting to get involved” and “slams.” It’s enough to give the reader a high, if not an indigestion.
To create a sensational story out of nothing, a reporter would start with an ambush interview of a prominent politician: “Congressman Polano, what do you think of the pork barrel scam? Do you think that should be investigated.”
Likely as not, Congressman Polano would reply, “I think so.”
That’s good enough to justify a headline that reads, “Congressman Polano demands investigation of pork barrel scandal.”
What’s different between the good old tabloid days and the present is the existence of social media which now combine with traditional media to provide a daily dose of partly true and partly masturbated newstertainment—news stories designed for their entertainment value.
In fact, social media may have already become the Philippine equivalent of the Roman colosseum back in those days when Nero fed Christians to the lions.
Just for the heck of it, I Googled “Roman Colosseum,” picked out an article on the gladiatorial contests and rewrote it to simulate a report, far into the future, about the social media situation in the Philippines, circa 2014:
“One of the most popular sources of entertainment in the Philippines was the social media colosseum. In the Philippines, the social media colosseum was a major attraction for those who wanted to see various events that were put on.
“The events staged at the social media colosseum were many, but the most entertaining of all involved politics and showbusiness and invariably ended with the destruction of reputations. There were the well known political gladiatorial fights and the feeding of political enemies to the media. There were also a number of lesser known events such as mock senate hearings, NBI investigations and police crime hunts, minor showbiz cases of adultery and sex videos. But the main event was the spectacle of public officials being pitted against other public officials by the media.
“But most entertaining of all was the equivalent of audience participation in the gladiatorial shows, with social media habitués posting all kinds of oft en inane, sometimes perceptive, and in many cases destructive commentaries to add to the media frenzy.
“The beauty of this kind of audience participation was that nobody was ever held accountable for slanderous or outright criminal statements, falsehoods, disinformation and plain and simple idiotic remarks. In the social media colosseum, every man’s right to be a prosecutor, judge and jury was protected by the shield of anonymity or remoteness. Commentaries could come from as far as Timbuktu and nobody really cared to trace them.
“Those who visited the social media colosseum did so to see public personalities being crucified. The protagonists – the equivalent of the Roman gladiators – were actually canon fodder – there to entertain and be destroyed. Many of these social media gladiators were presidential wannabes, called presidentiables, a uniquely Filipino term.
“Those political gladiators who fought well were elected to positions of power from where they, in turn, conducted social media gladiatorial contests, featuring up-and-coming political wannabes.
“These social media gladiatorial shows were free to anyone who could access the Internet. The government believed it was a good way to keep the people of the Philippines happy and content with the way the country was being run – it drew attention away from the corruption going on in backrooms, incompetence in managing public services, and economic growth benefiting only the rich while the poor, many of them social media habitués, remained unemployed and hungry.”
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