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How not to write a news story: Manila Bulletin and “online marites” as source
A recent story by Manila Bulletin illustrates the inanities of traffic whoring by the rewriting-social-media-posts beat. The story amplified a serious accusation – that the artist Moira dela Torre was paid a “whooping” (the amount does trigger a fit of coughing) P5 million for her performance in the Robredo-Pangilinan campaign in Zamboanga City. But throughout…
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Google searches “accurate predictors” of presidential election results, researchers say
Google Trends predicted the winners of the past two presidential elections in the Philippines. Except for former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, Google Trends predicted the winners of the previous four presidential elections in the United States and the past six in Canada since the company’s search data were made available in 2004.
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Armchair journalism
Miffed at being criticized over a news coverage, a reporter once juxtaposed his “real journalism” of being out on the field with “armchair journalism.” The attempted put-down betrays a dated outlook on journalism, one that’s stuck in a different era. It is the journalism romanticized by the 1976 film All The President’s Men. For the…
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Dimitris
Dimitris got locked inside our AirBnB unit when he visited the Philippines in March 2019. He called up his son back in Lamia, Greece, who then messaged us for help. It was his son who booked the stay, that’s why he did not have direct contact with us. You could just imagine the hassle –…
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Mayor Ahong Chan shares questionable survey results that show his group leads in Lapu-Lapu election
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Ahong Chan shared on his Facebook page today results of a survey reportedly by a group called Pulse Phil Survey that shows not only that he leads bitter rival Rep. Paz Radaza (74% to 20%) but that his council slate would sweep the elections 12-0.