Playing with Fire
Hope in media
By Gonzalo Duque
WE wish to express our heartfelt condolence — and, if you please, warm congratulations to the family of former Mayor Liberato Ll. Reyna Sr., who has joined eternally happy souls in God’s kingdom at a very ripe age of 95 recently.
A unique wish to a departing one? Well, you know us naman. We don’t go for the ordinary and common. We go for novelty, and to do it, we go to the core of things.
When someone dies, he — if he is good, God-loving, and super bait — will go to heaven… something we can’t say of the many.
A very friendly public servant, Mama Libring was LP chairman of Dagupan when erpat, the late Paco Duque was LP chairman of Pangasinan. We had several meetings then with Mayor Reyna, and this columnist could say without fear of contradiction, that he was one of the best politicians this country has produced.
We were vice governor of the province when he was mayor of Dagupan City, and we did a lot of partnering. We saw how good, friendly, and pro-masa he was. He lived a full life. And he was loved and liked. We it was a great departure that he had.
Happy trip, Mama Libring, to God’s universe!
* * * *
We are elated by reports that our campaign for a clean, reformed and uncorrupted media is getting public approbation.
Legions of good words continue to pour in. Well, we always say, we owe it to the members who share our vision of media that places the public interest uppermost.
We are encountering a few roadblocks or resistance, but not much. We are familiar with this kind of territory, having been president of a university, of the national association of private schools, colleges and universities, a national sports body, and many more.
We always tell our colleagues, some of them anyway, those who feel some discomfort at the reforms we are initiating: there are two sides of a coin — one shows there are those continue to miss “the good days” when politicians and media men partner in worldly pleasure no end.
Well, you saw them frequenting or hanging around politicians’ offices, so prevalent in the old times of yore. We sometimes can’t tell one from the other. This was media’s low point, because they were supposed to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.
Then came the media talibans’ invasion. A spokesman of them told us he was going to put up another press club dominated by the talibans. We told him “good, go ahead, you are making our job easier.”
For the ideal would be to reform the talibans, but if they are hardheaded, we say, happy trip or good riddance.
We’ve been hearing from politicians who try to appear friendly but have nothing but contempt for newsmen with cirrhosis – of the ” liver liver” variety. These politicians compare notes with fellow politicians who try to outdo each other of misleading or hiding from the media talibans who would do an interview but actually to “solicit” cash.
But as we said we are still lucky to have more legit ones in the club, and we are happy to report that they, too, are unhappy with their misbehaving colleagues.
What is most obnoxious is when a media man paints a scenario where subject — or better still — media victim is threatened with expose if he does not come across. Marami yan dito. That’s black mail plain and simple.
It is this “or else” variety that our club today is doing its best to eliminate. We heard from our own beerkadas that certain practitioners (you know them by the untruths that they dish out in their broadcast programs) deliberately twist or distort the truth in a mockery of their job of truthful reporting.
We stress with delight that the majority deplore this.
Now this is inspiring: an avalanche of youngsters– college students –wants to join the Club as junior members.
We are going over methodologies that would enable us to harness young talents so that they, too, would be involved in Junior Journalism or, in our particular case, Pangasinan Junior Press Club.
The idea got intensified during the celebration of Boys Week in our city because the public saw the young’s efficacy in advancing developmental ideas in running the city government. How much more, we thought, if those tapped are college students who have matured in the formulation of workable, doable, and creative ideas in building our community and country.
Let’s wish them, the Pangasinan Junior Press Club, the best of luck.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
