Sloppy journalism: TIME Magazine account of Duterte's "War on Drugs" @Iyengarish
Western media, especially Time magazine, was heavily used in the 1980s to build up the Aquino brand and to demonize Marcos. The same strategy is being applied on Duterte today.
There's a recent article on Time written by a writer named Rishi Iyengar who should be sent back to journalism school. This guy wrote a report about Duterte and the war on drugs, and the main Philippine national government official he interviewed was—don't laugh—Senator Leila de Lima. Yes, believe it. He also included a token quote from PNP chief Bato de la Rosa, but only so he could depict the "closeness" of Bato to Duterte as some kind of blind loyalty to a mass murderer. Iyengar's main interviewee was Leila de Lima, the accused drug lord protector herself. Maybe Iyengar should also interview Lucifer about the Christian faith.
Other minor interviewees of Iyengar among government officials: Mike Rama, the former mayor of Cebu who is also an accused drug coddler; and Chito Gascon, the die-hard yellow CHR head appointed by Noynoy Aquino under whose presidency the drug lords thrived. Makes you wonder how much research Iyengar actually did before he wrote his article.
This is the problem with foreigners who self-righteously criticize what's going on in our country when in fact they don't have a clue. Iyengar thinks he knows better than the 16+ million Filipinos who voted for Duterte, and the 91% of Filipinos who trust Duterte. In effect, Iyengar is saying that nearly all of us Filipinos, all 91%, are idiots, and we should ignore the realities that we see with our own eyes everyday, and listen to him instead. Why? Because—shiver me timbers—he's with Time magazine! The Time logo is supposed to razzle-dazzle us indios into forgetting we have our own brains.
Iyengar calls the planned investigation against De Lima, and the info about her driver-lover, a "smear campaign". He obviously doesn't know that the news about De Lima's driver-lover has been an open secret for years and De Lima herself has not denied it. Has Iyengar even seen the pictures of De Lima partying with a drug lord at the national penitentiary? Is Iyengar aware of how the national penitentiary turned into the "Bilibid Hilton" of the drug lords and became the number one source of meth/shabu in the country during De Lima's watch as head of the Department of Justice that oversees the prisons in the Philippines?
Iyengar did not mention in his article that nearly 600,000 drug pushers/users surrendered within Duterte's first 6 weeks in office, and the average number of killings per day has gone down from 35 to 20. Why indeed should he bother to mention these facts? They don't fit with the fiction he and Time magazine want to promote.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar should sit down with the foreign correspondents in the Philippines and educate them on what is really going on. He should show them what a crazed shabu addict is capable of doing, like stabbing a 22-year-old nurse 19 times in her bedroom because he was looking for cash to pay for his next fix. Better yet, Andanar should arrange a free one-week stay at the Bilibid Hilton for these foreign journalists. It will be the most unforgettable sponsored junket they will ever experience.
Here's the link to Iyengar's article. His Twitter handle is on it. All Filipinos on Twitter should give him a piece of their minds, and show him that the Time logo can't razzle-dazzle them into giving up their capacity to think for themselves.
http://time.com/4462352/rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-drugs-philippines-killing/?xid=tcoshare
Make no mistake about it. The Western media has been mobilized to demonize Duterte and make foreign investors lose confidence. Andanar's team should beef up their ranks. The government channel and the Philippine News Agency are not being maximized to disseminate real information, so the yellow media and the Western media with their vested interests are filling up the vacuum.
--------------------
This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion!
http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2016/08/ninoy-not-hero-lets-rename-naia-back-manila-international-airport/#comment-1714923
To Mr. Iyengar, please read this presentation that Senator Alan Cayetano's office released so the people will know the real results of the war on drugs.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.scribd.com/document/321863105/Senator-Alan-Peter-Cayetano-s-PPT-presentation-delivered-on-the-Senate-Hearing-on-EJKs-on-22-August-2016
There are actually much fewer killings per day since Duterte took over compared to his predecessor. You will also see in this presentation a memo signed by Leila de Lima on the proper definition of "extra-judicial killings". De Lima, Chito Gascon, and the other yellows are misusing this term so they can blame every death on the Duterte admin. Like Duterte said, they might as well count people who die from diabetes and cancer as "extra-judicial killing" just so they can pin more deaths on him, since they're trying to blame him anyway for every death that happens. Mr. Iyengar, don't be a fool.
Just because you're with Time magazine you consider yourself journalist? You are biased, sloppy, irresponsible.
ReplyDeleteTIME Magazine has to re-assess their writers/contributors' credentials to ensure the high stature of their being "TIME Magazine"-credible, notable...dynamic; and do away with guys like this Mr. Iyengar, lest they will join the run-of-the-mill kinds.
ReplyDeleteWhen the evidence and witnesses against de Lima come out at the House investigation, Iyengar will need to flush his credibility down the toilet.
ReplyDeleteThanks, God! there is alternate electronic media, TIME or Newsweek no longer sway power like they did in the 70's and 80's. There is no doubt that the US lost the Vietnam War and the War on Drugs due to the biased opinions and influence of the Western Press. Had Putin not held his ground, he would have lost the Chechnyen War. So, sorry, TIME, 91% of Filipinos support their President on his war on drugs.
ReplyDelete