Time to raise standards, not self-righteousness

The case of two radio blocktimers who were allegedly caught red-handed while in the act of receiving money in an apparent extortion attempt has led to a wide variety of reactions both in the public and in the media.

Most of the reactions bordered on self-righteousness, on the holier-than-thou, as if buying block time on radio necessarily makes one evil, or that belonging to mainstream media automatically bestows the mantle of holiness on anyone.

It is correct and proper for the media to be jealous about their righteousness. After all it is a calling that assumes a lot of civil responsibility. Guardians of the public good, we who belong to the Fourth Estate love to say of ourselves to whoever cares to listen.

Actually, the only thing that separates us from the rest of the citizenry is our built-in access to a medium --- to help mold public opinion, help influence policy, work toward informed decisions, etc. In short we are on the side of public good.

But that does not deprive others a similar right. Lawyers, doctors, career officials, policemen, nurses, businessmen --- in fact the whole gamut of society has every responsibility to be good citizens and be guardians of the public good themselves.

Again the only difference is that it is not their calling. They do not have access to a medium 24 hours a day. But each in his own way can carry out his civic responsibility to the best that he is able, in the manner in which he is trained to do, in his own calling.

This is how the media ought to look at itself, as part of a wide-ranging and functioning community of do-gooders imbued with a mission to protect that which is beneficial to all. In other words, we police ourselves as we police each other.

Those blocktimers may shame and embarrass mainstream media with what they have done. But they are not exactly the culprits most of us would like to see them. They are just victims of some quirk in the system that has not been resolved properly by society.

This is not to say they should not be punished. Of course they should be. But let their punishment be because they committed a wrong, not because they do not belong to the rest of us or that we are ashamed to be associated with them.

To the mainstream media, they may be blocktimers. But to the rest of society, to which we all belong, media or otherwise, they are a part of a larger community whose quirks as far as they were concerned were largely ignored, even by us.

We in the media know these people. No only know them but knew them for quite sometime. But before the incident happened, the common response to their presence was to ignore them, to pretend they did not exist.

We were all secretly praying they did not do something that will have to provoke our hand to do something. They were like unwanted relatives we know exist but we do not invite to our parties.

Gag them? Why gag them when that does not solve the problem? All members of society have their own strengths and weaknesses. To those who know the art of refinement, life can be a breeze. Alas, to those who have as much finesse as a buffalo, theirs can only be tales of woe.

And why gag them when in this age of the Internet, virtually everyone can peddle anything without having to account for it. The best thing to do is to raise standards in skills and ethics and be stricter about regulations. Beyond that, who can really tell the angel from the devil.