Worse than free

Vergel Santos, media guru, could not have chosen a more appropriate time to come out with his book, “Worse than free.”
“Worse than free” contains Santos’ 110 essays on journalism ethics and other media issues written between 1997 to 2002 which appeared in Businessworld, where he writes a column. The book should be useful to both sources of news and messengers of news.

For news sources, who are at a loss on how to deal with media, Santos shares the following tips in his article, “If you can’t lick them, what?”:

1. Make yourself readily accessible to journalists. It’s an attitude that by itself reflects appreciation of the journalist’s job. If circumstances prevent you from meeting the press yourself, issue a signed statement or assign a spokesperson, but make sure he is an insider whose rank or position in your organization alone denotes knowledgeability, authoritativeness, and credibility.

The press generally regards outside PR persons as “fixers.” It accepts them as legitimate players in the business only for so long as they dispense fair counsel to their clients. They can’t therefore be effective spokespersons.

2. Exercise your right of reply. To be reported as having refused to make a comment or being “unavailable (or unreachable) for comment” is to arouse the worst suspicions.

Journalists have no patience or sympathy for a news subject who hides. Soon enough, they will resort to what is known in the business as “stink bomb” – that is, reportage that focuses on the most unsavory aspects of a fugitive news subject’s case, and releases a stench guaranteed to permeate the best fortified hiding place.

3. Observe press protocol. Don’t ignore reporters. Remember, theirs is the power of first judgment – what is news and how to present it.

If you have any grievance, don’t take it any further up the media organization’s hierarchy until you have exhausted your chances at redress at the lower levels. A journalist passed over could be provoked to overzealousness or even prejudice.

4. Don’t play favorites. Don’t deny information you have given one journalist to another who has come to ask for it as well, or you will be marked unfair and treated equally.

You are not expected, however, to volunteer information to any journalist. Not only must he ask, he must ask knowledgeably. He must have an idea of what he wants that you have. He must not expect to be rewarded with any information by simply doggedly asking, “What’s the news?” or “Anything happening? It is informed doggedness that deserves reward, not insistent ignorance. By observing this standard, you will help raise the quality of journalism.

5. Make enough allowances for newspeople. “Enough” here means as much you would make for anyone given the professional and ethical demands for his job.

For newspeople, three particular considerations need be understood: Most of them are generalists, not multi-specialists, therefore requiring help in tackling specialized issues; they work, indeed live, against deadlines, a circumstance that takes a toll on nerves; and they belong to a profession that pays modestly and is governed by high ethical standards.

Presumably, therefore, journalism attracts people of non-materialistic ambition. Admittedly, however, it puts such vast powers in the hands of its practitioners that some of them end up corrupted or intimidated. These are extreme creations of press power. The timid are more the concern of the press itself than that of the news subjects and sources. They are usually reformable by reorientation and retraining. But the corrupt are everybody’s bad news. They naturally have to be exposed. Protected and used to one’s advantage, as happens in some cases, they take their own patrons with them in their inevitable fall.

6. Deal honestly. For every journalist you can bribe or threaten or intimidate, there’s at least one that you can’t, and, by himself, he can bring the full pressure of the truth on you as well as his colleagues.

“Worse than free” will launched today at 5 p.m.at the Reading Room, Filipinas Heritage Library, Makati avenue.