Sex, lies and video tape

When the story first broke that there was a possibility that the opposition senator then chairing the congressional investigation on the extra judicial killings perpetrated recently in connection with the anti-illegal drugs campaign of the government might be personally complicit, the major broadsheets had immediately dispatched reporters and photographers in a race to ejaculate the next morning their most eye-catching headlines.

As cocks crowed and the day broke, the broadsheets had splashed across its front pages color photographs of houses said to be those of the senator’s associate. The images immediately evoked judgments. To the illiterate, she was immediately guilty of all accusations — from the petty to the implied. Speculations on the value of the homes, the value of the vehicles parked in open garages and car ports, as well as speculations on the earnings of the residents within, heaped unvalidated gossip upon gossip upon gossip.

The stories that accompanied the photographs were focused on the senator’s personal relationships with her associate, not a lot on their professional lives, nor on the allegations of a utilitarian innuendo that hinted of what might be criminal complicity, but more of what was quickly sinking into kitsch voyeurism. That the mainstream media respond to such impetus as sleaze over substance has become apparent and tend to reestablish the notion that the fourth estate deliberately perpetuates its market’s assumed 7-year old intellect.

For many in media, the scoop is the be-all and end-all of their journalistic endeavors. Repercussions count less and are as important only as substance. That what substance there might be, verified several times over by applying the usual second- and third-source rules in journalism, and the establishment of fact-based reporting are typically secondary to the momentary glory of a scoop. More so, buried under a pile of gossip and garbage are the reputations of those targeted by scoops. Reputations fall by the wayside in pursuit of the scoop, there waylaid, and eventually in many cases, dead and buried with the truth.

It is an old, overused and crusted cliché that pictures paint a thousand words, and in a modern multimedia society where images and imagery replace words and text pictures and video have effectively been elevated beyond substance and are given far more importance than the literature, whether of the tabloid or the legitimate kind. Unfortunately, while pictures might be more eloquent, their messages are easier misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Referencing the campaign surrounding the anti-illegal drugs advocacy, indulge us a quick review of the form and manner by which vital issues are presented by the mainstream media. Analyze whether this has either helped form intelligent and informed public opinion on one end or, on the other end, muddled and obfuscated the public’s 7-year old mind forcing it to sink farther south and fall even more puerile than it originally started as.

Note that even alternative social media have caught up and have quickly hopped on the “bobo” bandwagon that the broadsheets started. Simply crank up any search engine and scour cyberspace. One is likely to find at least three sex videos purporting to show live sex acts of principals who authorities claim are related to the anti-illegal drugs investigations at the House of Representatives.

Check out the number of views. Even if we give these viewers the benefit of the doubt and assume that only a fraction are voyeurs while the rest are only honestly and innocently curious, it is not difficult to see how our authorities, both within the Executive and the legislative branch might have earned their mandate and actually deserved to be called representatives of the people.

Media, the Executive and the legislative branches mirror the desires of the public they serve. All three are sustained by the public and, collectively, all wallow in the sickening sleaze and slime Philippine society has sunk to.