Periodico's Lies and Incompetence Could Not Sustain It

Volume 2, Issue No. 47

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 . . .

 The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Saturday, December 26, 2020 

~ No talent, no money, no knowledge, nothing exceptional but to lie and lie repeatedly, the upstart tabloid called Periodico was doomed to fail and perish. And that final moment came almost unnoticed. It resorted to a euphemism to announce its departure from the local scene. "Account suspended," the announcement said days after it proclaimed it wasn't coming back 'till 2021 "after the lockdown". In reality, it's over for this yellow publication.

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THE UPSTART CALLED PERIODICO

The End Was Inevitable for This Tabloid

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“A moment’s beginning ends in a moment”. ― Munia Khan

(Editor's note: I wrote the article below as soon as I read the notice that Periodico's account "has been suspended". That was days before Christmas. On that same day (December 25, 2020), I checked again to see if it was still on. Well, to my big surprise, Periodico pops up again with the same old garbage that has become its trademark.  I decided to run this piece just the same knowing its demise is just a matter of time).

TORONTO - As if to soften the pain of losing its inconsequential presence, the self-conceited tabloid called Periodico has gone - or more accurately, forced - into suspended animation, perhaps never to rise again, hopefully not in the foreseeable future.

"This Account has been suspended," declares the one message on its website. "Contact your hosting provider for more information".

That was the death knell. Its actual existence, propped later on by what passed as an online presence, had been short-lived owing to the baloneys it perpetrated and soon discovered by an audience so small it was unquantifiable.

The secretive people behind it believed and fought for the idiocies the periodical published in wanton disregard of ethical niceties, wrongly concluding it had the license to vilify its perceived enemies.

The first time Periodico came out in print in March, it had committed to a strict adherence to high standards of journalism. As its editor-in-chief, it had to be that way. "We will not countenance wrongdoing in all its forms," I stated unequivocally in my editorial outlining the fundamental principles it stood for and practiced.

That declaration probably did not sit well with the people who had invited me to head the paper. Later on, these same people would be the ones to contravene that as it had become obvious their agenda was personal than their stated goal of serving the community.

Well, I would not ruin my reputation built over decades of experience as a multi-media journalist only to participate in the revenge being exacted by my principals. I had to get out. My term didn't last long, and I became, by my own choice, a one-issue editor-in-chief. No regrets though. 

My currency is the amazing trust reposed in me by millions of viewers, readers, and supporters in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and of course, in the Philippines. I enjoy huge patronage in the homeland as in Canada and the United States. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/11/ten-years-of-free-and-unencumbered.html).

The subsequent issues of Periodico after March had migrated online. To be clear, I had nothing to do with them despite the appearance in its online edition of many of my articles pirated from my website. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7JWqL2AUDc).

I had predicted the publication would not last long. For one, it had no credibility. It published lies after lies and even exulted that it had become a "sensation" (after only two issues) when there are no metrics to show readers had known and acknowledged it. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgJIOUQv7CQ).

It shamelessly spoke of "honest reporting" when in fact it stood for dishonesty and distortion. The owner, publisher, editor, writer - whoever they were - were in constant hiding, physically and nominally, for fear of being found out ostensibly because of existing issues with the law.

Just take a look at the website. There's no way of contacting whoever by phone or email. Their office probably exists in the clouds, or if not, only in the fanciful minds of the wannabe media persons they claimed to be. Yet they contend getting feedbacks in praise of what they're doing. It's total bullshit.

One ghost I'd renamed Bulaan (liar) had the nerve to assign to himself the penname of Jose Rizal, best known for his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, inferring he had the intellectual gift and writing talent of the Philippine hero when he can't even distinguish a noun from a verb, a pronoun from a contraction of a phrase.

Just before its pre-Christmas shutdown, Periodico wrote: "Some publications are full of grifters, tricksters, and outright liars who rely on people's fabricated stories to amplify their message". (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/12/so-distraught-this-wannabe-begs-to-be.html).

For a moment, I thought the publication was describing itself. How fittingly, with these words: "They create outrage about something that had seemingly never happened. There are a few red flags that mislead. There are ragebaits to attract sponsors. There are twisted stories to grab readership".

Surely, that statement was not about Periodico, but it did depict it in no uncertain terms. So graphic the language was that what it had set out to do to advance a wrong cause was actually being projected accurately.

I knew the broadside was directed at another tabloid that had graciously lent itself to a purported elite group whose officers and members look more like the despicable scammers in the community than the crusaders they professed to be.

Any reasonable person would raise hell against anyone who wrongs him. And this is precisely the trigger for the aggrieved party to retaliate in the same arena - publishing a newspaper and a website despite its manifest incompetence - for maximum exposure.

Periodico was not only a fledgling, it sorely lacked the financial muscle, the manpower, and the knowledge to sustain a newspaper battling another to even up the score. This is not to say its nemesis had all these; its only advantage was its money and an established brand name. Without those, it's just as inept.

Handicapped by lack of funds, Periodico was doomed. Absent the expert manpower (not the kind that Bulaan exemplified), it was hopeless. Though it existed for a while, its end was inevitable. And so on this cold December month, it succumbed to its fate. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).