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Dear Romy, Ladies and Gentlemen in this distribution:
The Devil is in the Headlines!
I spoke too soon in praising this “investigative reporter” for working with Jon Melegrito in what I thought was a “civilized manner.” I mistakenly thought that he was accepting my appeal for a truce, and for the return to civility and sobriety. I take back all the nice things that I said about this man whose words and motives are hard to trust. Just look at how he continues to distort and twist the facts with screaming 14-point bold headlines, according to his hopelessly subjective motives and huge chips on the shoulder:
Romy, your headline said: “Support for NaFFAA and its Officers at a Dismal Low, Manifesto Shows; Only 97 members signed.”
My response: That is a classic example of a non-sequitor. The conclusion does not follow the facts. Obviously you do not know the players, and do not care to know them as you show no respect for them. The first 97 who signed are just the regional leaders. Many of them, like the ones in Texas, represent an entire Federation of organizations. Their chosen leader is authorized to sign for all of their members. As we speak there are about 200 now, so your “breaking news” is very quickly a stale fish. If you would care to update your “breaking news” you will be doing it everyday as the number of signatures grow exponentially. Following your twisted logic, do you want signatures? I will give you 1,000 signatures! You know I can do it. You even published the story of the “Texas 10” in your Veritas paper, along with 1,000 signatures on an appeal to the President, and I thanked you for it. All I ask of you is some objectivity and fairness.
Prior to this, you submitted another “Breaking News” which some unwary on-line publishers printed. And, falsely and inaccurately, you again presented a misleading headline as your foregone conclusion:
Your Headline said: “Naffaa’s Greg Macabenta Admits to Making Money from Wells Fargo Bank While Sitting as a Ranking NaFFAA Official”
My Response: This article appeared as-is in FilAmImage.com and probably other unsuspecting media vehicles. Fortunately, not many publishers saw fit to publish it. The Filipino Reporter quickly asked for the other side of the story by interviewing NaFFAA officials. Nonoy Mendoza, who was with us that entire weekend, told me that he did not even notice how the headline was worded as he was busy night and day preparing for the 2009 TOFA ceremonies, and Nonoy promised to also publish the rebuttal statements. But everybody knows that when this “Breaking News” was released, Greg had already been cleared on this charge by the president of Wells Fargo Bank and by the independent auditors. You know and everybody knows that this headline is patently false, inaccurate and misleading. Did you correct yourself, in all fairness to your readers? If you at least issued a clarification or a rejoinder, as any responsible reporter would do, we did not see it. Instead, you continued to send out the same false and misleading article. Where is “responsible journalism” there? Note: This is not in defense of Greg necessarily, as it is in defense of truth, fair play and the true essence of responsible journalism.
A responsible journalist who investigates all sides of a question, just presents the facts as he gathers them, and lets the readers make their own conclusion, instead of slanting the news with subjective headlines, making them appear as “Breaking News.” This is disgusting and an affront to serious journalists. You are either an objective newsman or an opinionated pundit. You should not mistake one for the other, because your colleagues in the fourth estate are insulted by it. Many of them have e-mailed me one-on-one, expressing their own sentiments and why they don’t want to join in the fray. Believe me, the comments from many responsible Filipino journalists are not very flattering.
My last advice to everyone who is just as fed up with this never-ending Chinese opera as I am: In spite of our repeated appeals for civility and sobriety, some of the bottom-crawlers will continue their mudfest. I heard that another salvo of pure dirt is being prepared probing deeper into the personal lives of the protagonists, complete with dirty photographs. Do you really want to see all these?
No matter how evil their intentions, their postings (to a limit allowable by law) are protected by the First Amendment. But you also have the right not to be subjected to a barrage of filth, as we have been in recent past weeks.
For as long as there are readers obliging them, these characters will not stop destroying and humiliating themselves publicly, and dragging you down to the gutter where they love to play. You can stop them three ways:
Formally request them to take your email addresses off their list, as many have already done. If they refuse to take you off, there is a way to ask their servers to shut them down as purveyors of offensive material.
Block them from your servers, which would either screen them off completely, or relegate them to your Junk Mail folders.
Bad germs are sometimes hard to kill. If their postings still infiltrate your defenses, you always have the last resort – the omnipresent and always reliable DELETE key. Push it! As an unwilling participant in this, If I get deleted in the process, I am okay with it.
Venceremos,
Gus Mercado
Dallas, Texas
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