Trial and Condemnation by Publicity

Volume 1, Issue No. 25

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . 

Our latest as of Friday, January 10, 2020 

~ Based on what has happened a month ago, our confidence in the ability of a local tabloid to report the truth has been shaken by a show of willful ignorance and gross incompetence. The dishonesty is glaring. The tabloid makes a vow to defend the truth to the death, but that's more in the breach than in the practice. Some editors and writers speak with a forked tongue, some behave like they're beyond reproach. To pledge and then forsake it for fear of being found is worst.

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QUICK TO JUDGE, ADAMANT TO RECTIFY

A Tabloid's Rejective Reporting

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ― Plato

TORONTO - When reporter Nicolas Keung wrote a story about a decision of a Small Claims Court judge against businesswoman Liwayway Miranda aka Lily Hammer which Toronto Star published on March 7, 2019, Teresita Cusipag, publisher and editor of Balita, the community's photo album and entertainment tabloid, was ecstatic.

She could hardly contain her euphoria. Her enthusiasm was electric, in fact, as she instantly emailed friends asking for a picture of Ms. Miranda without telling them that it would be used to go along Keung's article which she was reprinting in her paper.

Deputy Judge Michael Bay had ordered Ms. Miranda and her company, A&L Hammer Workforce Management, to return the $14,000 she charged five migrant workers. In addition, the judge awarded them $6,000 in punitive damage and $20,000 in general damage. She was also asked to pay $3,350 in legal costs.

I hesitated to touch the news of that decision, first, because I wasn't there when it was handed down; second, I did not have the documents in my possession; and third, I was busy doing a bigger story - the fraud and forgery charges leveled by 36 complainants who claimed losing $300,000 in remittances against the couple Jesus "Jess" Mallari and Teresita Mallari, owners of the remittance company Mabini Express Inc.

Ms. Cusipag was quick to republish Keung's article, so that a week after it appeared in Toronto Star on March 7, Balita had it published in its March 16-31, 2019, issue. Ms. Miranda's coloured photo appeared with a brief caption on page 1, and another picture of her accompanying the main story on page 11.

It was not the first time Ms. Miranda's coloured portrait landed on Balita's front page. In its May 16-31 2019, issue, she was there again alongside the headline of a rehashed story, this time by the copycat "guest writer" Edwin Mercurio. His masturbated article was on page 10 with her picture again.

In a span of at least three issues, Ms. Miranda's image and narrative occupied a place of prominence in Balita. Notwithstanding factual mistakes in Mercurio's sloppy writeup, Balita kept running the story to the point that Ms. Cusipag was already painting Ms. Miranda as a fraud.  " . . . MANLOLOKO PA RIN, SCAMMER PA RIN, CROOK PA RIN," was how she puts it.

By April 2019, or soon after the publication in Toronto Star, Ms. Cusipag started calling Ms. Miranda as "Lily Scammer". In June, she raised it even more, writing that, and I quote: "Lily Scammer is Lily Hammer the fraud and scammer". 

Fast track to December 11, 2019, and all the unwarranted labeling by Ms. Cusipag proved wrong. On that day, the Superior Court of Ontario junked all, repeat all, the charges against Ms. Miranda, including human trafficking and misrepresentation. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QprwiFQiLjs).

On the same day, the Toronto Star published the news account of that decision by reporter Nicolas Keung who covered the event. A CityNews Toronto reporter published his story online within hours of the withdrawal by Crown prosecutors.

I sent out a nine-paragraph story later in the afternoon after concluding a long interview with Ms. Miranda and her supporters and joined them for lunch at a downtown cafeteria. By wire standards, my story was already late, in fact, way, way late if I were reporting for an international news agency. But I was writing for my blogs and I had the luxury of time.

Between December 11 and the usual deadline in Balita of at least three days before the issue date, there was ample time to write and publish the news development in Superior Court which practically freed Ms. Hammer from any accountability. 

But who in Balita would write and report it? Edwin Mercurio? But it's neither fiction nor entertainment, by the way, it's a true story relating to law. No way would I entrust it to him if I were his editor. His copy would surely end up in the garbage bin, to be candid about it.

That left Ms. Cusipag with the choice of reprinting Keung's latest story in Toronto Star, as her usual practice. But why didn't she do it? 

So, in its December 16-31, 2019, issue - that's nine months after the offending article came out in March - Balita, the tabloid that vowed "to publish the truth nothing but the truth x x x till the day we die!" was false-hearted.

No word about the court's decision clearing Ms. Miranda can be found in any of its 80 pages. Why the sudden apathy? Was it because it favoured Ms. Miranda whom the court exonerated?

There was another opportunity to live up to its declaration that states, and I quote: "There is no price tag for integrity, principle and fairness. We vow to fight for those beliefs and defend them . . . "  Fairness? My foot!

Having missed the December 2019 issue, I was hoping to find a republication of Keung's article, if not, at least a decent writeup not necessarily by the copycat Mercurio, reporting the big story of the dropping of all charges against Ms. Miranda in Balita's January 1-15, 2020 issue. If Balita is truly fair, it owes Ms. Miranda that much.

But it didn't happen. I don't see it happening. It seems Balita would rather leave its readers wondering if the accusations against Ms. Miranda were truly withdrawn by the Crown for lack of evidence. 

My sense is that Balita would stick to its perverted reporting no matter how egregious the mistakes are. "Balita will continue to publish the truth nothing but the truth x x x till the day we die!" That must be a joke. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).