RACHEL K.

CERDENO AB JOURNALISM II-A

CRYTICAL ANALYSIS: “Lords of the Press”

Sheila Coronel’s “Lords of the Press”, greatly tackled how newspaper proprietors intervene

in editorial decision-making to protect their business.

Here she emphasized that though “most of the business people who own newspapers are too

busy to intervene in day-to-day editorial decision-making, it has not stopped them from inhibiting

journalists from exercising their duty to report fairly and responsibly.”

Yes, given the constitutional guarantee of a free press in the Philippines, the only possible

way for the government to intervene in the way newspaper run is to file charges in the court. So

because of this, official have tried other means to influence media coverage like paying off

journalists or by exerting pressure on press proprietors.

In the Lords of the Press, the author enumerated and highlighted several roles of the

government, the proprietor, and its newspaper in our society, to make us; the readers and the public

see and realize what’s hidden behind the screaming headlines and the strident editorials is the

vulnerability of real constraints on the freedom to write freely.

First, is how the newspapers have been used to defend their owners’ political allies or

otherwise advance their proprietors’ business concerns. In many cases, they have tended not to rock

the boat on issues involving government officials and agencies regulating business.

For instance when the Manila Standard headlined a story in February 1999 which later

turned out false, asserting that a mysterious BMW President Joseph Estrada was being chauffeured
around in belonged to Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, who was then being investigated for dropping the

president’s name to land fat government contact. This created an issue that caused the president to be

ragingly mad.

In his previous life as an action film star, Joseph Estrada was known as a person who wasn’t

exactly tolerant of a bad press. He was the kind of guy who would seek out the offending reporter

and urinate on the man to express his displeasure. Though it was said by the author that he doesn’t do

that anymore, what could be an impossible thing to do for a payback, while having a presidential

position?!

The Gokongweis- whose diversified business empire includes manufacturing,

telecommunications, banking, retail trade, real estate and agribusiness- were particularly an easy

target for the President. Like what the author stressed in the selection with so many businesses that

have to deal with government, they have the reason to fear having state regulators and tax auditors

breathing down their necks. Though Manila Standard and its sister newspaper company Times

differed in their stand point on the issue; MS acknowledging its wrong report while Times still insists

that it had factual basis, nonetheless, Rowena Gokongwei-Pe, the president of Metromedia Times,

the company that owns the newspaper, issued a front-page apology to the President for the “anxiety”

caused by the report, in spite of the three editors who resigned in protest.

Second, is how newspaper owners used the editorial pages of their dailies to persuade

Malacanang to sit aside the outcomes of public biddings that were unfavorable to them.

When Emilio Yap, the publisher of Manila Bulletin, the country’s second largest newspaper,

lost the bid for the Manila Hotel to a Malaysian consortium, the Bulletin ran daily front-pages stories

criticizing the awarding of the sale of the Manila Hotel alleging, that the historic hotel was part of

the national patrimony and should therefore be sold to a Filipino company. He used the paper to
convince President Ramos then to reconsider the results. Coronel stated here, how The Bulletin

played an important role in winning back the Manila Hotel in favor of Yap.

It was the same cup of tea, when the Manila Standard questioned of the awarding of the

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority of the contract of port services to the Hong Kong Company

Hutchison Ports Philippine Inc. When one of the Standard’s owner, the Razon family who runs the

International Container Terminal Services (ICTS), had lost the bid. The paper campaigned for

reconsideration and other dailies reported on the controversy.

The author explained here how these two cases demonstrate how press proprietors have

abused their power setting aside the canons of good journalism by using the canons of good

journalism by using the opinion and news pages of their papers to campaign for their business

interests.

Proprietors intervene in editorials matter in different ways, some give their editors the

freedom, but they will intervene when they are under pressure from powerful officials to slow down

in critical reporting like with the case of Gokongweis.

There are also instances when owners will meddle in editorials or political and business

stories, as favors to friends when they think or when they think the reporting has become too critical

for key official.

The rest of the time they leave their editors to decide what to print, while on the extreme, the

owner takes the place of editors as gatekeeper of news and information. The author pinpoint the

Manila Bulletin here as an example of extreme.

The author also bravely named some big time newspapers and their and how their editorial

stuffs function. Newspapers like Philippine Star or Malaya, editors unquestioningly accept the rules
set by owners and dutifully execute orders to highlight or kill a story. On the other hand some editors

manage to strike out a relationship where owners have a hand in drafting editorial policy but leave

the newsroom decisions to professional journalists, like the Inquirer.

Aside from the roles of proprietors in a newspaper , Coronel also discussed the history of the

Philippine Press and news papering, how it transcend from the American colonizers, to Spanish

mestizo Alejandro Roces, who founded a chain of newspaper, followed by William Randolph Hearst,

then other politician like Manuel Quezon and sugar baron Eugenio Lopez till to the present

generation of newspaper proprietors.

The author especially mentioned the name of Emilio Yap, as the person that best personifies

the interventionist press proprietor. He was addressed as an authoritarian by some Bulletin Editors.

He approves everyday the lineup of story for the next day’s paper. He also instructs editors which

story cannot come out and which story should be prominently displayed. Coronel Further explained

how Yap handles the Bulletin and how it differs from how Robina Gokongwei handles the Times .

Unlike the Bulletin the Times newsroom, as described by the author is an arena of contention

between these conflicting world views, as well as constant clashes between the family and their

liberal-minded and activist editors, have given the paper a reputation for being critical and hard-

hitting.

Inquirer has kept its independence because its editors have jealously guarded their

prerogatives and it’s owner know that the paper is hard hitting and it is a risk losing its market if it is

perceived to be losing its critical edge. Cause of its strength as the country’s biggest paper, and

politicians are wary about being perceived as intervening in its affairs for fear of being accused of

muzzling press.
 Smaller newspaper are more vulnerable as perceived by the author to more intervention

because they have less clout.

Thumbs up with the author when she wrote the part that there are many other problems

hobbling the press aside from proprietors intervention, like insufficient skills, the pervasiveness of

checkbook journalism, intense competition, and lack of editorial supervision- with all these

combined it could form a sloppy reporting. The generally low pay of journalists and death of

logistical support for thorough research add to the mediocrity of Philippine press.

Reading the Lords of the Press by Sheila Coronel, opened my eyes to a new dimension of

Philippine press that is far from what I have imagine my future to be as an aspiring journalist.

Understanding every part written of it is more of “ a must do” thingy for every media practitioner and

aspiring ones. Critiquing something like this would take a lot more than just to focus in it; you should

understand it by heart and mind. 3 days of reading and understanding this makes me want to vow

down to Sheila Coronel for her bravery and will in writing this kind of investigative report ,for the

public to see what’s really behind every newpaper distributed everyday.

2. The mark of press excellence is the freedom of the writers and editors to write and reveal the truth

with no intervention and stopping from proprietors who just want to prioritize their business interests.