Forty-one percent of 1,200 surveyed nationwide by respected pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) agreed that "often, news on television, on radio and in newspapers (is) purely negative and… no longer helping the country," while 29 percent disagreed. Twenty-eight percent were undecided.
Metro Manila — where most media organizations in the country are based — is the most critical, with 47 percent reporting its effects to be negative, followed by the rest of Luzon with 44 percent.
Thirty-three percent and 38 percent of Filipinos in the Visayas and Mindanao, respectively, gave critical responses in the survey.
SWS deputy manager Gerardo Sandoval said the opinion survey question was a so-called "rider question" posed by AMA Education System and was included in the SWS’ quarterly polling.
"We have included some items from AMA in our regular third quarter SWS survey report," he said.
Sandoval said they included nine questions from AMA in their August 26 to September 5 survey. He could not cite the poll questions in detail.
AMA is owned by special envoy Amable Aguiluz, an adviser of President Arroyo.
Johnny Ramos, AMA Education System vice president, said his company is a subscriber to SWS and they asked the survey firm to include some of the group’s questions in the latest SWS poll.
"Normally, our surveys refer to institutions, our understanding of the community and we also have rider questions to understand the political or economic climate in the country," Ramos told The STAR.
Ramos denied the questions were meant to help the Arroyo administration counter opposition-led moves to force the President from office over allegations that she cheated in last year’s presidential election.
"I don’t think so. We do this quarterly on economic, political questions but I don’t think this is related to that," he said.
In a separate statement, AMA explained that part of its subscription contract with SWS "allows it to generate specific survey items dealing with the technology-education industry and with the political climate."
In the same statement, AMA disclosed that the SWS survey found that 37 percent of Filipinos believe that "the opposition does not have a clear plan for the country. Its only objective is to bring down the current administration."
Twenty-eight percent disagreed with this statement while 31 percent were undecided. — Marichu Villanueva