Is the press helping us decide who to vote for on May 14?

The campaign season is officially on. Are we getting relevant information about the senatorial and party-list candidates from the press? Is the press helping us decide who to vote for on May 14? Or are we just getting more confusing and misleading information?

Watch for the results of the 2007 Media and Elections: Media Monitoring—the latest project of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)—which will be released soon, to find out how the press is covering the 2007 senatorial and party-list campaign and elections.

CMFR has been monitoring the performance of the press since 1989. Its landmark citizens’ media monitoring project in the 2004 presidential elections, which included coverage of television, was a first in the Philippine electoral experience. The 2004 citizens’ media monitoring project, which included citizen groups in a broader media watch of press coverage, was also the first time that reports were released during the campaign period.

Visit www.cmfr-phil.org and www.cmfr-phil.blogspot.com to know more about the project. You may also call (894-1326/894-1314/840-0903/840-0889) or email (staff@cmfr-phil.org) CMFR for details.

CMFR is holding a round table discussion on the media coverage of the 2004 elections on March 5. Please call or email CMFR for details.

On media and democratic development

Melinda Quintos de Jesus, the executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), discussed media and democratic development last January 25 at the fourth session of the “Transformation in New Democracies" conference organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

"Democratic communities must foster a new relationship between the press and the public, more connected and more interactive," De Jesus said in her speech. "Such a relationship will evolve a new kind of journalism to meet the challenge of the age of democracy."

Check the CMFR site for more details.

Amazing Race: The Philippine Press Edition

I was supposed to post here something yesterday (If I remember it right, something about the over-hyped media coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the current boycott campaign against Globe) but I was simply deluged by the work we have right now in the office. The February issue of the PJR Reports, promotional work for the Freedom Watch desk of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and PJR Reports, CMFR's monitoring project of the media coverage of the 2007 elections -- all in this week. (Note to myself: Please do not forget that the annual work for the Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism has just started.) And I should have updated CMFR's website eons ago. To think it's only February. Whew. I feel like a contestant to the "Amazing Race: The Philippine Press Edition."

So, while I'm busy racing against time researching, writing, and editing for CMFR and PJR Reports, I'll leave you with these two interesting news items:

Philippines: Special Courts to try Extrajudicial killings suspects

Manila, 15 Feb. (AKI) - The Philippine government will create special courts that will handle the case of extrajudicial killings in the country. The news arrives as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to keep the Melo Commission report on the issue secret. Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno said the High Court will establish the special courts that will have to rule on the political killings as well as those of members of the press.

The chief magistrate said he had already directed the Office of the Court Administrator to submit a complete inventory of all extrajudicial killings which will include ideologically-motivated crimes and media killings.

Read more here.

And in the war between YouTube and the Boob Tube, which media heavyweight is going to win? The Harris Interactive in the United States clues us in which platform is slowly winning the media battle for hearts and minds.

What happens to people who spend time surfing the popular video-sharing site YouTube? A new poll reveals that many of them end up spending less time in front of the television set.

According to a newly released survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a third of YouTube viewers say they now spend less time watching TV.

With the relationship between the popular site and broadcast television already strained by threats of lawsuits about copyrighted material, the survey’s findings seem to suggest how much of an economic challenge the Internet can pose for the television industry.

Click here for more.

More airtime for Mitoy! Bring back Chuchay!

One of our guilty pleasures in the office is watching Eat Bulaga. So, while we're eating our lunch, we watch the silly and wacky antics of Eat Bulaga's hosts. It doesn't hurt to watch a ridiculously funny show when you watch ANC, CNN, and the countless news programs all day, no?

My favorite portion of the show is the "Bulagaan", that long-standing segment of Eat Bulaga. I remember when Diane, our Fil-German intern a few months back, was still in the office. She asked why we like "Bulagaan" and watch it all the time when the hosts' antics are more or less the same every day. I found myself and Lara speechless for a moment there. Truly, how do you explain the "Bulagaan" phenomenon?

Anyway, although I still like it when it's Vic Sotto and Jose's turn, my daily digest of "Bulagaan" now would not be complete without Mitoy. Mitoy, I am your newest fan.

More airtime for Mitoy! Bring back Chuchay!



In this video, Mitoy and Chuchay appear near at the end. Just be patient in loading the clip. I tell you -- it will be worth the wait.



By the way, this is my first post after upgrading this blog. I hope I won't experience any problems with the blog-moving -- heard some bad experiences from others who earlier upgraded their blogs.

What happens if Harry Potter Book 7 is laden with product placements?

Some Filipino films have this tendency to put in commercial products in their scenes, especially if the stars in those films endorse such products. I've seen such films where the stars buy, eat, or use the products they are endorsing in real life. Is this some kind of a deal between the star and the product's company, perhaps, a deal that involves millions?

What happens if J.K. Rowling decides to cash in as much as possible with her last book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? An except, according to the Adfreak blog, would go something like this:

Chapter 2: Harry Meets His Roommates in Ft. Lauderdale

“So, like, have you ever hung out down here for spring break before?” Daphne seductively slurped a Caffeine-Free Diet Sprite, her lips doing calisthenics along the rim of the can.

Harry adjusted his Foster Grants. “My first time,” he said.

Daphne giggled, snapping her Doublemint gum in time to the music blaring from Bose speakers in the hall. The song was “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce, available at Virgin Megastores everywhere.

As Harry adjusted the cuffs of his Polo shirt and shuffled his Puma-shod feet, a dark figure appeared in a burst of smoke.

The skulking form reached out with Rolex-adorned appendages that looked more like claws than human hands.

Harry intoned: “Powers that be, protect this abode. You’ll harm us not as yonder toad!”

“Ribbit!” said the warty creature as it hopped across a copy of Blender magazine.

Daphne shrieked. “That was my fiance from Utica!”

“But ... he appeared in a plume of smoke!”

“So he likes to party. Don’t be such a narc!”

Daphne cradled the toad in her hands. “Trey wasn’t a wizard. He didn’t even have a job since he got caught stuffing his pants with McDonald’s Egg McMuffins.”

Harry’s head ached and his throat felt dry. “You wouldn’t have some Anacin or a Diet Coke, by any chance?”

Daphne gently kissed the creature’s back. “We’d been dating for six hours, ever since he drove up this morning in his dad’s Toyota Camry. It was the first serious relationship I ever had.”

“Look, I can remove the spell, change him back...”

Daphne curled up on the floor, a broad smile on her Lancome-lacquered face as she licked the toad’s bumpy head. She cooed, “Whose my widdle green American Idol?”

Behind the mirror, Sony video cameras recorded the scene for the wizards back at the Fox Television Network to air after all new episodes of House on Tuesday nights.

(Photo from Adfreak blog)

UN conducts probe of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines

The United Nations will be sending an official to the Philippines to conduct a probe on the spike of extra-judicial killings in the country.

According to this article, "Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission for Human Rights, will conduct the probe from February 12 to 21."

"More than 800 people have become victims of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines since 2001, most of whom were leftist activists. Other victims were human rights workers, labour and peasant leaders, as well as journalists," the article added.

According to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, there have been 61 journalists and media practitioners killed in the line of duty since democracy was restored in 1986. Half of these killings happened during Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's watch.

Going the way of the dodo?

Finally, the oldest creature in the ancient world of newspaper print shifts online. What does this development tells us? Are newspapers really going the way of the dodo?

A Distinctly Modern Demise for the World’s Oldest Newspaper
By Katharine Q. Seelye

The Swedes, who jumped into the newspaper game back in 1645, are taking another great leap forward: what is said to be the oldest newspaper in the world has gone digital and is now available online, and online only.

The World Association of Newspapers says that the country’s Post och Inrikes Tidningar, or PoIT, is the world’s oldest newspaper still in publication. Its new editor, Roland Haegglund, is its only employee.

“The change in format is of course a major departure, for some possibly a little sad, but it is also a natural step,” Mr. Haegglund told Agence France-Presse, which first reported the story.

Read more here. See also the Wikipedia entry on PoIT and its website. Dodo bird's picture taken from this site.

NTC orders Globe to rollback Unlimitxt rates

This just in:

From TXTPower's Tonyo:

"Consumers rejoice as National Telecommunications Communication orders Globe to rollback Unlimitxt rates in response to TXTPower. Globe must comply ASAP. Ref: Tonyo Cruz 0917 8928277"

Visit TXTPower's site here for more details. The banner above was taken from the said site.

Editor's libel cases against Claudine Barretto dropped

As they ridiculously say in NBN 4's Teledyaryo, "Balitang Taartits muna tayo.... Cha-cha-hin mo, beybeeh!"

Quezon City court drops editor’s libel cases against actress
Source: Freedom Watch

TWO LIBEL cases, this time filed by a journalist against an actress, were dropped on 30 January 2007 after both parties reached an out-of-court settlement.

Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 88 Judge Rosanna Fe Maglaya junked journalist Jo-Ann Maglipon’s suits against actress Claudine Barretto after confirming that the editor-in-chief of Yes! and former executive editor of Hi! magazine was withdrawing the suits. Yes! and Hi! are both entertainment magazines published by Summit Media.

Barretto first filed an injunction and a civil suit for damages against Maglipon on 22 July 2005, claiming that her photographs had been published in Yes! without her consent. The July 2005 issue of Hi! magazine carried photos of her daughter’s christening. She also claimed to have received “non-stop negative publicity, craftily disguised as feature stories.”

Read more here.

CNN's Anderson Cooper: the Paris Hilton of television news? (and can we use jihad to refer to just ANY fight?)

Is CNN's fair-haired (no pun intended) boy Anderson Cooper the counterpart of celebutard Paris Hilton in the TV news world?

Entertainment columnist Gail Shister of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes:

Anderson Cooper, Paris Hilton: See the resemblance?

Who needs Rosie and Trump when CNN and Fox News Channel are duking it out in a Steel Cage match?

Latest volley in the verbal jihad between the cable rivals is an FNC ad in trade journal Television Week blasting CNN golden boy Anderson Cooper as "the Paris Hilton of television news."

Responded CNN president Jonathan Klein, "It's a sign of desperation to resort to infantile name calling."

Read more here. Photo of Cooper saying to his co-anchor in 1997, "talk to the hand!" taken from Wikipedia.

By the way, while I find the phrase "verbal jihad" Shister used quite amusing, can we use jihad to refer to any fight or argument?

From Wikipedia:

Jihad, sometimes spelled Jawwad, Jahad, Jehad, Jihaad, Jiaad, Djehad, or Cihad, (Arabic: جهاد‎ ǧihād) is an Islamic term, literally meaning struggle in the way of God and is sometimes referred to as the sixth pillar of Islam, although it occupies no official status as such.^[1] Within the realms of Islamic jurisprudence, jihad usually refers to military exertion against non-Muslim combatants.^[2][3] In broader usage and interpretation, the term has accrued both violent and non-violent meanings. It can refer to striving to live a moral and virtuous life, to spreading and defending Islam, and to fighting injustice and oppression, among other usages.^[4]

Jihad is defined here as "striving in the way of God." It also said that "jihad is often used to refer to an armed struggle fought in defense of Islam." In this site, jihad refers to a "holy war or struggle." A more thorough discussion of jihad can be found here.