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Doesn’t PNoy know anything about algorithms?

At the Presidential forum of the FOCAP, PNoy complained that the media are more concerned with “trivialities” like his love life. My good friend Voltaire Tupaz asks via Twitter’s #PNoyFOCAP: Do you agree or not?

My quick reply: Media is a mirror with an attached lens. It reflects what is placed before it, and a certain social algorithm kicks in to move the attached lens to certain areas of the reflected image. At least as far as mainstream media is concerned, the love lives of the rich and famous do have an appreciable weight in the algorithm. But the weight won’t be worth any if the rich and famous don’t feed anything. WsubLL x 0 = 0. Doesn’t PNoy know anything about algorithms?

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He got bum advice, shoulda got a Heckler & Koch instead.

This morning, I decided to set aside my pseudo-regular blog column, and give way to the persistent pressure from my favorite Mafia character to say his piece about a certain public scandal that happened last Friday involving a fast car, a high-powered gun, and a Palace biggie. (Don’t these three always go together nowadays? LOL.)
AK-47 type II
One of the world's most fearsome assault rifles, the AK-47, comes to mind after a recent public scandal involved such a powerful gun, a fast car, and a Palace biggie. (Don't these three elements always go together nowadays? LOL) Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AK-47_type_II_Part_DM-ST-89-01131.jpg

Bene, Don Llamas. I never thought you were a bad Consigliari. You are part of the Family, don’t you ever forget that. We’ve been through some pretty tight situations in the past, remember? But my friend, let me tell you flat in the face: you got yousself some bum advice, getting an AK for your personal security, and then allowing it to just lie around like that inside your SUV.

Continue reading “He got bum advice, shoulda got a Heckler & Koch instead.”

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Lessons from the underground press of the martial law era

Taliba ng Bayan was an underground newspaper in Pilipino published by the National Democratic Front from late 1972 until the early 1980s. (From the Dante L. Ambrosio collection, http://bit.ly/oFZktI)

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

That quote might be a startling, almost cynical take on the meaning of press freedom. But it was a respected American journalist, A.J. Liebling, who coined the now-famous aphorism. The terse statement was supposed to emphasize the harsh realities of capitalist ownership behind the noble expectation that journalists freely exercise their right, nay, fulfill their duty, to always provide the public with honest information and informed opinion.

In any case, little did Filipinos realize just how painfully that saying would apply to them on September 23, 1972. On that fateful Saturday morning, we all woke up to find no newspapers delivered to our doorsteps or sold on the sidewalks. We twiddled our radio sets (in my case, set just right beside my pillow, the better to hear the early morning news), asking with great puzzlement why they only emitted static noise on that morning.

Continue reading “Lessons from the underground press of the martial law era”