Intrigue and caution

There is so much space for rumor, intrigue and innuendo in Philippine society. From the decision made at a coaching level to organizational movement, we have started to develop a culture of second-guessing, of implying motive when, many times, there is none. When our favorite team or athlete loses, the game was fixed, or someone rigged it to make more money, and so on. When a foreign coach is not renewed, someone undermined him, or he was racist. When our favorite athlete doesn’t get an award we feel he deserves, someone blocked his win. When a school implements a new rule, it’s to preserve their status quo.

I’m not saying that those things don’t happen. They do, and far more frequently than is healthy. But it has become so habitual for us to engage in trial by social media that it becomes news in itself. One unpopular decision, and not only is someone vilified on social networking sites, even other acts that are not even real transgressions are lumped together to form a pattern. Even in professional leagues, this happens. Some NBA fans say the league favors certain players, who allegedly get away with traveling violations and even offensive fouls. But how do you go about proving it? On the other hand, every championship game in the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls era was supposedly worth $12 to 20 million, yet many series ended in Game 6. 

Given that we are inundated with an endless stream of data, promotions, announcements, sayings, complaints, proposals and theories disguised as actual news, how do we filter out the information to a point where we can discern who is pulling our collective leg? If even mainstream news agencies have their own biases, what do we do to weed them out so we can see the plain news as it should be seen?

First, check the source. Was it said by a person involved, an eyewitness, or someone who just heard it? In the case of what happened to Samboy Lim, for example, witnesses spoke about what they saw, which really gave the initial announcement weight, considering it was hard to swallow that Lim had, indeed, been struck down by some illness. He was virtually a superhero. If it is an actual experience of the event in question, then that adds credibility to it. But if it comes from hearsay, then you will have to dig deeper, or else you’ll be misled.

It would be wise to tread softly around social networking sites, for one, much of what is said there comes in the form of an opinion, and the opinions may or may not be valid. It is particularly dangerous when you have an expert or celebrity in one field speaking out as an authority in another. In the US, athletes are often asked to answer questions about war, economics and politics. For most of them (and most of us) it would be unlikely that they’d have a decent answer, unless they are already identified with a certain political party. Open-source site that survive on self-policing by its contributors is another Bermuda triangle. Remember, you don’t know who put what and when on that site, about that topic.

There are also dozens of fake news sites, and sites that perpetrate news hoaxes. The most frequent ones falsely accuse celebrity deaths, such as what Jackie Chan experienced. In this country, they often exaggerate, saying that the tears of certain fans would flood certain main thoroughfares during UAAP months, naturally, it’s best to confirm, confirm, confirm. Again, it’s best if it’s a direct quote from the person, or an authorized spokesman. As long as they speak the mind of the person they represent, and not their own.

Now, let’s look at accusations. In the Philippines, even in sports, these generally fall into three categories: incompetence, corruption, favoritism. When a coach loses in international competition, he’s incompetent. This, even if he didn’t get full financial support, wasn’t given the players he wanted, and did not have enough time to prepare. It seems we have a habit of going into battle with one tied behind their backs, then we expect miracles. The tragedy is that, when you’re a coach, sometimes the public expects you to have wins trailing out of your posterior. Losing is part of the games. It happens.

Remember Richard Jewell? He was a security officer at the Atlanta Olympics, who found the gym bag where the pipe bomb in Centennial Park was placed. Later, his heroism was turned against him, as he stood accused of actually being in cahoots with the perpetrators, the accusations ruined his name and ruined his career. At least two people died as a result of the blast. Weeks later, it was discovered that Jewell, in fact, was not involved in the bombing whatsoever. But until today, people still think that he did it.

Whether it be incompetence, corruption or favoritism, there has to be some attempt to prove it. One big issue now, for example, is the selection of the players added to the list of 40 greatest PBA players. In light of the issues being hurled at the selection committee, some accusations of personal vendettas and favoritism have arisen. How does one go about proving these accusations? If it’s personal, you’ll have to put together quite a case to convince a lot of people. In addition, will it make a difference? Sometimes, simply swaying public opinion is considered a won battle.

We are one of the initiators when it comes to new trends in wireless communication, Filipinos are among the most savvy in the world. Another big chunk of our society jumps on the bandwagon and reposts or re-Tweets information which may not be accurate, but merely believable. As I often say, it is the burden of the journalist to get all sides of a story and gather evidence. With the speed of social networking, most people don’t even bother. And more and more people’s names get sullied.

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Follow this writer on Twitter @truebillvelasco.