Rapid commentary: Time to circle the wagons
Well, who would have thought that 34 years later, Aurelia, the wolf would again be at our door. Ready to huff and puff to blow the Fourth Estate down. And all for what, not to surrender so-called balls to the labeled oligarchy in favor of a creeping authoritarianism if not mobster rule?
Easy to get emotional in the time of hunghang, but not as easy to find new jobs for thousands about to be laid off with the denial of ABS-CBN franchise. Knocking off free TV and free radio, the news and entertainment programs of a broadcaster with the widest reach, the dissemination of which doubly crucial in the time of pandemic, could barely be called a populist move. The administration may have been correct when it said this is not about press freedom, rather survival of the fittest sycophant.
Idea for a column: a list of names of all congressional lackeys who voted to thumb down the franchise renewal, gofers in other branches of government and their paid hacks in media. They know who they are. But the people deprived of additional choices on free TV and radio should know too, just in case they’re registered voters.
Voting the unforgiven out of office may be their easy way out, the elections being two years away. But if the time to act is now, what would be the options for the common media consumer or, for that matter, any self-respecting media that will not tolerate a comrade being struck down?
Item: no more press coverage or releases for every one of the 70 who voted against, no more ribbon cuttings for them or sound bites or burying of time capsules unless they themselves get buried, but then this will only entail a footnote in the obit page.
How many of our countrymen in the provinces have been deprived of a news program with the blackout of regional TV Patrols, or the persistent static on the radio dial of dzMM. Who will keep them informed on the latest track of an incoming typhoon, developments in the fight against coronavirus and if a vaccine is finally forthcoming from China or Timbuktu, alerts on possible terrorists in our midst, if jeepneys will be allowed on the streets again without headlights, never mind the update on body count from the drug war.
Of course there are other stations, indeed a main rival is quickly trying to fill the slack, political persecution of one is opportunity for public service for another.
Item: no more releases or coverage for minions and gofers and political willy-nilly of the strongman in denial, no more publicity write-ups on the detritus of their dealings, their fake smiling faces that make the ordinary observer sick short of manifesting Covid symptoms.
For every streetside balut vendor who watches MPBL games on an old style box TV, for every taxi driver who passes by motels since shut down and turned into quarantine facilities while listening to Dr. Love on late night radio, who will assuage their loss, the simple comforts that help them make it through the night and day?
Not the congressmen best relegated to the void, the void of their minds if not the proverbial dustbin of history. Who would have thought that the wolf would bounce back stronger than ever in the time of hunghang?
Item: dark eyebrows like dark clouds on TV advising that as per SARS-CoV-2 shield, there must be makeshift barrier between couples now allowed to ride pillion on motorcycles. After spending the night with their genitals joined together. And that, dear Aurelia, is the state of our nation today.