JE C.C.
The veteran Kapamilya journalist seemingly received some schooling from former but much younger ABS-CBN reporter Kevin Manalo.
It’s a no-brainer that a true journalist should go through extra lengths to know the different sides of a story and that it is a must that the real, and the only truth that matters, get delivered. News saves lives, after all, and while the truth can be painful, it’s what makes us free and alive, in the long run. There are principles that must be lived by in any profession.
In the world of journalism, truth is a life-saver, and it’s one anybody in that field should aggressively pursue. Being a non-partisan agent seems an utter requirement to fulfill this goal of truth-seeking. But what happens when one becomes seemingly deliberate in omitting a crucial slice of information to paint an incomplete version of the truth?
Seasoned journalists are tasked during this election season to help voters understand who among those seeking various elective posts in the government is telling the truth and thus must be voted. Tough questions are expected to be asked especially when you are the one designated to cover a particular candidate. Be that as it may, journalists are not seen always perfect in fulfilling their roles.
They get questioned too, sometimes even by their colleagues, on whether or not they’re deliberately leaving the right tidbits of information uncovered so that a new and much more palatable rendering of the truth is exposed.
Like in any realm of professional work, time and experience are deemed crucial in one’s growth.
You learn as you grow older in your line of work. You are expected to learn the core principles of your profession, and your examples are expected to inspire younger practitioners. It’s not foreign to see when the newbie reminded an oldie of those principles, but it’s rare.
Ina Reformina, a seasoned ABS-CBN journalist who is currently assigned to cover the presidential campaign of the former dictator’s son, Bongbong Marcos, recently became the receiving end of schooling about her work.
Reformina, a known adherent of the ‘flat earth theory,’ is the beat reporter for Bongbong Marcos.
A beat reporter works like the eye to cover a specific area, topic, or issue. Reformina got designated to the former senator Bongbong Marcos beat reporter. She is to deliver news and information that involve the beaten 2016 vice president and his current presidential campaign.
However, she seemed to have forgotten that reporting alone is only her responsibility. She is a journalist, first and foremost. Apart from reporting, she has other vital tasks to perform, as Kevin Manalo seems to point out.
It's not an excuse anymore to tweet like this just because you are assigned to cover his sorties. There is no critical analysis whatsoever.
You are in the position to ask him difficult questions. Where are they? https://t.co/CrKG0WC4Hf
— Kevin Manalo (@kevinmanalo_) March 15, 2022
In a tweet, Manalo questioned Reformina’s lack of initiative to do beyond just ‘reporting’.
“It’s not an excuse anymore to tweet like this just because you are assigned to cover his sorties. There is no critical analysis, whatsoever” he pointed out, adding “You are in the position to ask the difficult questions. Where are they?”
The statement is Manalo’s response to a short clip of Marcos speaking at a sortie covered by Reformina, posted by ABS-CBN News on its twitter page. On her page, Reformina’s reports about Marcos can be found.
Several netizens wonder whether Reformina is a pro-BBM reporter who happened to have been assigned to cover the ex-senator’s sorties. Manalo went on to remind Reformina that she is not there to just “…report information. The natural thing to do is to challenge their claims, scrutinize their platforms, and make sense of the situation by laying down context”.
Marcos has been aggressively pushing his “unity” narrative, which seems to be the very core of his presidential campaign.
It is not clear, however, how exactly will the presidential aspirant make use of “unity” with what could be gargantuan work for him, as a potential elected president.
Manalo seems to be looking for receipts that show Reformina [actually] challenging Marcos’s claims, as she has already been handed the power to do so.
@COMELEC what’s the meaning of this? @jabjimenez
— Rev S. (@nirmasharmis) March 15, 2022
Netizens also drew a comparison between Reformina’s style of reporting to other news reporters assigned to cover Marcos, including GMA Network’s seasoned and award-winning journalist, Sandra Aguinaldo.
Known social media personality, Miss Krizzy, called Reformina out and instructed “…this is how you report a campaign rally. You should get sides of the stories, hindi yung parang documentarista at propagandista ka ni BBM.”
The said report revealed that several attendees received money-bearing envelopes, at Marcos’s campaign rally in Nueva Ecija, where Reformina also covered.
The report also noted the irony when some of the dictator’s son’s supporters chanted “Hindi kami bayad” (We didn’t get paid), while an obvious vote-buying was already happening around. That part of the report seems to have been missing in Reformina’s coverage.
Based on her latest tweets, Reformina appears to remain unfazed by the allegations and looks poised to continue being so until the campaign season is over.
