Teachable moment for Duterte and the media

THE row between President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and the media has transmogrified from a case of presidential defiling of murdered journalists to a surreal spectacle of boycott threats and the threatened substitution of state media for private media.

What started as a typical Duterte wisecrack and display of machismo, is now a full-blown crisis in government-media relations. It has enmeshed not only domestic players, but also international organizations, even the United Nations.