Media: No longer watchdogs FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/18/2010

Media: No longer watchdogs

FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/18/2010 Gloria Arroyo and her spouse, Mike Arroyo, will be gone from the corridors of Malacañang in less than two weeks, but they will still be the focus of the media — the yellow media in particular — for sometime — at least until their long, long honeymoon with Noynoy Aquino will have to be over, perhaps after four to five years. The reason is fairly simple: Noynoy Aquino and his administration will have to focus on the ills of Arroyo and her regime, mainly to cover up Aquino and his government’s inadequacies in governing a nation and their failure to effect changes and reforms as promised. At the same time, his yellow media will only be too happy to harp on the ills of the Arroyo regime, and expose all the reported corruption, as this too, will be their way of hiding the inadequacies of the Aquino ll regime and protecting him. This pattern has been noted for decades — in both the administrations and their fawning media. In 1986, when Cory Aquino was catapulted to power and Malacañang, her yellow media, once the mosquito media that had emerged as the mainstream media, focused on the Marcoses, as Cory did. Whatever she did, including inanities, was praised by the fawning yellow media, so much so that the scandals and yes, even scams under her government, were never played up by her yellow media. Naturally, she came off smelling like a rose. They called her the icon of democracy, and blasted Marcos for shutting down the press when he declared martial law, but they kept strangely silent when Cory ordered the closure of the only opposition paper then — the Daily Express. But to the yellow media, this was a good thing. For one, there was no more competition. For another, its printing presses were sold by the Aquino l regime for a song to them.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100618com2.html

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