|
Media Matters for America had done an extensive documentation of the
media bias against failed Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary
Clinton. The nonprofit, nonaligned group tracking down and exposing
bias and partisanship in the US media proved, beyond reasonable
doubt, that the Swiftboating of John Kerry by Republican hate
operatives in the 2004 campaign was softball compared with the
misogyny related-hate campaign against Clinton.
Paul Krugman, the distinguished economist who
writes a column for The New York Times, said that by reading the
accounts of Media Matters for America, one can get a sense on what
transpired in the recently-concluded Democratic primary. Clinton was
the victim of a hate campaign unprecedented in US politics. While
the mainstream US media deified Barack Obama, it demonized Hillary
Clinton.
It is just tragic, commented Krugman, that the
candidate who stood for solid policy proposals, such as a superior
health care program, and the best hope of the American
working-class, was pushed out of the campaign by the media mob.
Most of us in Philippine media let this pass
without comment. We have no real business commenting on US politics,
which nuances and dynamics we are not truly grounded in. We may know
a little about US politics but any contribution to its dissection
and discussion would always seem hollow and superficial. I, for one,
never wrote a word about it.
The unfathomable demonizing of Clinton is worth
recollecting now because something similar to it is happening right
here in our political midst. Sen. Loren Legarda, who is high up in
the survey among preferred presidential candidates in the 2010
election, is now the target of vile media attacks.
Her earnest effort recently, which was to help
out in the release of former ABS-CBN colleague Ces Drilon, is being
used to demonize her. We are witnessing the Hillarying of Loren
Legarda.
The attack lines are similar. Hillary talks
about Hillary. Loren talks about Loren. Hillary twists words, parses
on some, to suit her political agenda. Loren is being accused of the
same.
Hillary is not beyond lying. Loren has been
accused of the same thing.
The attack playbook is about the same. The only
difference is, the words are cruder here, more primitive, the
English words in the script of attack totally defying the rules of
good usage. Just as crude and as primal are the motivation of the
people attacking Loren Legarda.
You just have to wonder who is behind all of
these? Is this an organized, funded effort to demonize Loren, or
wild, out-of-turn misogyny? It can be either or it can be both.
What are the facts on Loren Legarda’s
participation in the release of former colleague Ces Drilon?
Loren was asked to come on board and help out in
the release. She got involved because she was asked to. There was
nothing that said that Loren volunteered for self-glorification or
whatever. The next of kin of Ces and the accounts of the ABS-CBN
news executives said that Loren was asked to help out.
Loren may have not known about the ransom part.
Or may have known about it but opted not to make it public so as not
to embolden would-be kidnappers.
Loren always wants to tell the good part of a
story. It is what she is and that is her life’s calling. If that
was interpreted as lying, obfuscation, parsing words etc.—a mortal
sin in the eyes of her detractors—I think she can live with that.
Civil political discourse, however, took a
beating anew in the Loren vilification effort. What was factual and
what was true were obscured in the crude but venomous attacks on
Senator Legarda. Is somebody out to take her out of the 2010
presidential race?
The vilification efforts were aided by
technology. Texts and blogs quickly spread, selling the same lies,
twisting the truth, muddling what should have been a collective sigh
of relief over the safe release of Ces and her cameramen.
The purveyors of crab mentality using modern
technologies have developed a new national sport—e-crabbing.
mvrong@yahoo.com
|
