FOREWORD
Timeliness and relevance are two important elements of journalism. While reviewing my files this week, I found them in an article, undiminished by years, necessitating a second look and checking if the publication it had been written for still carried it on its website.
"The first rough draft of history," was how the late Washington Post publisher Phil Graham called journalism. The article I mention here is a chunk of history, but for some unstated reason, it had been removed from the site. Quite a bit of a disappointment especially for those who keep watch of developments in the Filipino community, and for students of history.
Because it provides an earlier glimpse into what two tabloid editors had been doing before they were exposed recently by one of their staff writers for lies and deception makes a compelling case to republish it in my blog. For the record.
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Volume 6, Issue No. 40
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Friday, March 21, 2025
~ They dispense with convention like they toss their stinky socks. Journalism is not like that. Advocacy journalism is fighting for principles, standing firm and uncompromising despite adversities, not selling out to favor friends and supporters. Because they would rather be on stage to bask in fleeting moments of false glory, a couple thought they could lead the community blind to their leftist cause. Ideology is a handy mask to hide their true intent. They are no more than agitprop agents out to cash in on the unsuspecting Filipino community.
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COMMUNITY JOURNALISM IN TORONTO
Leftist Ideologues and Agitprop
Is Their Outlet Forever Gone?
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves." - François de la Rochefoucauld
TORONTO - On the outside they look benign, a seemingly loving couple perpetually tethered to each other - at least that's how they appear in public.
More than newspapering, they share a passion for being photographed with the high and mighty and with those who have a potential to shine.
They appear in their own paper, stiff but smiling broadly and looking directly at the camera, and in other publications where space, for lack of advertisements, needs constant filling with irrelevant stories and photos.
They dispense with convention for the fleeting glory of the moment. They seem to have no qualms in being seen anywhere and everywhere despite protocol enjoining the observance of a code of ethics and conduct. In journalism, after all, appearances are critical to the performance of one's job.
It is unethical, for example, to be constantly rubbing elbows, and photographed at that, with people who are potentially subjects of adverse stories because public perception, real or imagined, would impact a journalist's independent disposition.
The reason is that in most, if not in all cases, journalists take on an adversarial role. They pose challenges to draw out the truth. An impassioned, free-wheeling discussion of issues would result only from such professional non-partisan behaviour.
On the other hand, an over-friendly journalist would not have this ability if public perception about him is already muddled with instances of impropriety.
So journalism, not the kind practiced by the lamestream Filipino newspapers in Toronto, is impaired by extreme familiarity with news sources and with people who happen to be in the news for their undoing.
The nature of a journalist's work entails honesty, conviction, neutrality and impartiality.
But the couple here must establish a wide media presence, perhaps to sustain the notion of active community involvement when in fact such involvement is projected only by constantly being filmed.
This strategy very much mimics the tact used to advantage by so-called community leaders and heads of community organizations. For those who doubt this assertion, just flip the pages of Filipino tabloids (those that still exist anyway) and see for yourselves.
Even as the iconic Reds are all dead - Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Chou, Che, Castro - and the Philippine version that they inspired, some capitalistic journalists in Toronto still hanker for the idea that evaded them in their youth.
Thus we have the Red Couple, their relationship sealed forever by fate and faith, and by a common hatred for something that exists only in their minds. It could be professional and business envy, distrust of others who outshine them, their awful lack of self-esteem and failure to advance commercially.
It's hard to pin blame on them, harder still to understand why they would engage in underground warfare in such an open society as Canada. They carry a double face - one that radiates an image of peace and contentment, and the other, a grinning, back-biting snake hiding in trenches.
I suspect the ideology they purport to hold and advance is just a cover to pursue private deals, thus financial support, not just from Canada but also from what's called cause-oriented groups in the Philippines. Otherwise, their paper would not be a propaganda sheet for the Left as it appears.
Toronto's Filipino community has barely time for such ideologues due mainly to the fact that the economy is able to feed the demand for jobs which in many cases are well-paying. Who would instigate changing the status quo than the professional "agitprop" agents?
For example, if the personal and health care providers are an aggrieved lot, it is not because no one is advocating for them. The problem is systemic that needs constant refining by whatever political party in power.
Our Red Couple are opportunistic agitprops of convenience who feign their social advocacies for their own personal comfort. Like the humbug they openly support, they are a sham. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
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