Seeing Red (again)

Name names for heaven's sake!

If Norberto Gonzalez, the government's national security adviser, is really damn sure that media have been infiltrated by members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, then don't hide under the saya of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. If you're making an accusation as grand as that, you better back up your claim. Isn't that pretty basic to journalists and non-journalists alike? That is, when you make an accusation, you should corroborate it?

From Malaya today:

"National security adviser Norberto Gonzales yesterday said the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army have infiltrated the ranks of the media.

"It is a normal practice of rebel movements to recruit media personalities because propaganda is an important component of their effort to propagate whatever they (communists) are engaged in," Gonzales told a news forum in Quezon City.

"So it’s normal that they are going to get elements from the media to be their members and we know that there are," Gonzales added without naming names.

Asked how many communists have infiltrated the media, Gonzales said: "Let us not talk how many…That (propaganda) does not involve numbers (of infiltrators) but on how effective they are able to smuggle to media what they want."

Gonzales's claim made me remember an article written by this year's JVOAEJ winner Fe B. Zamora (of the Philippine Daily Inquirer) for the April 2005 issue of the PJR Reports. Her article entitled "Who's the Enemy," focused on a military intelligence briefing compact disc which allegedly named the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) "as two of several 'fronts' of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA)."

I think Chevelle's song "The Red" perfectly suits Gonzalez's wild claim.



"The Red"
By Chevelle

They say freak
When you're singled out
The red
Well it filters through.

So lay down
The threat is real
When his sight goes red again.

Seeing red again
Seeing red again.

This change he won't contain
Slip away to clear your mind
When asked what made it show?
The truth he gives in to most

So lay down
The threat is real
When his sight goes red again.

So lay down
The threat is real
When his sight goes red again
So lay down
The threat is real
When his sight goes red again.

Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing red again
Seeing RED!!

They say freak
When you're singled out
The red
It filters through.