Are We Really Being Fed With Truth?

I am currently watching the old Korean series "Pinocchio". The female lead character has Pinocchio syndrome by which she hiccups when she lies. In the series, it exposes what happens behind the broadcast media. I'm not saying it really happens since it's just a TV series, but having such inspiration for such a story, it might mean it really happens.

The female lead character wanted to become a journalist or news reporter but she failed on her interview in a media giant because she has Pinocchio syndrome, by which the considered antagonist, her mom, didn't let her pass the interview and audition.

The male lead character is the victim of likely a false testimony because of a man's Pinocchio syndrome claiming he saw the former's father. The situation was aggravated because of the manipulation of the media.

The female lead antagonist has been seen manipulative to gain the better coverage of the issue which the father of the male lead is involved being the fire chief. Another media man from another network wanted to do what the media woman does but was not allowed by his boss.

In the first four episodes of the series, media bosses has been encouraging their applicants to lie. Even some of the applicants on their audition has reported in a way to make unverified stories, actually assumptions. The male lead at that time has also applied as a news reporter.

I haven't finish the series yet but it can be seen that media men are guilty of unverified reporting, as well as manipulative news. The media woman was even shown creating a dramatic story in her reports. She even reported that a flood is waist-deep, but actually she knelt to make it seem that the flood is really deep. Actually, it made me wonder whether some of these Filipino news reporters are really doing it right. Yeah, I remember that male reporter in the middle of the flood and strong winds during the typhoon. He became popular at that time.

I also saw some videos in the internet by which CNN news reporter has been doing a formation of the protesters to make it look dramatic on TV.

Back in 2004, a popular female news reporter interviewed the widow of Presidential candidate during the wake. The widow expressed her grievances on the TV network of the female reporter even saying these words "People don’t want to watch your news coverage because you capitalize on personal hurt."

That Interview was among on the list of spot.ph in this link. Actually, one of the issues at that time is during the presidential campaign, the angle of the videos shown in the network doesn't show the crowds at deceased candidate's campaign. The video of the interview cannot be seen anywhere, probably removed. I actually saw that interview because I was a fan of that news program back then. During that time's elections, the vice presidential candidate who won is a former news anchor of the TV network.

The TV network is also involved in blunders. I remember their news story regarding the flesh-eating disease in our province, Pangasinan. The story can be read here. The TV network has released an apology on the report which is untrue. The said flesh-eating disease is psoriasis, Lol! It sowed fear on people in our province that time.

Recently, there are videos circulating in social media which the four news anchors of a TV network doing make faces, probably in disbelief, because it is about the landslide win of a presidential candidate. There are accusations towards these anchors of being biased, and siding with the losing candidate.

There are so much more issues against the mainstream media. We as citizens can also do our part because we cannot fully rely on what we are fed by the media. It might be journalists are merely humans, and they are prone to mistakes. Or probably, they have agenda we are not aware of. Broadcast networks are businesses too, and there can be interests involved.