Newsbreak
Thursday, March 31st, 2005Second best
By Chay Florentino Hofileña
Newsbreak Contributing Writer
It will be remembered as perhaps one of the lowest points in local TV journalism history: an anchor of a top network losing command and control of an interview during the live broadcast of a running political story.
The scene of the disaster was the wake of action star Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) last December 16. ABS-CBN anchor Karen Davila cried on air after being rebuked by actress Susan Roces for her network’s alleged partisanship in its election coverage last year. Davila apologized on behalf of everybody in the station for whatever pain they might have caused the widowed actress.
Davila’s apology was a major issue for network bosses and employees alike who strongly felt that it was unnecessary. Others protested against Davila’s self-appointment as their spokesperson.
The incident is only one of many tension points that have contributed to internal grumbling within the media organization. Hobbled by intrigue, skepticism, and intense politicking, ABS-CBN is now under pressure to reclaim the No. 1 spot it lost to rival GMA-7 in the Mega Manila area.
A new team has been tasked to lead and set directions for the media conglomerate that must compete more aggressively to once again be the best in broadcast journalism.
Dominant for years and formerly anchored solo by Vice President Noli de Castro, ABS-CBN’s flagship program, “TV Patrol,” slid to No. 2 in September last year. The drop was symbolic as it signaled the decline of the network as well.
At its peak, the news program—tagged as the “gateway to prime time”—recorded ratings as high as 35 percent compared to GMA-7’s 10 percent. One rating point is said to be equivalent to over 35,000 TV households in mega Manila.
Politics & Power
ABS-CBN, which has been a political launching pad for the likes of De Castro and former Sen. Loren Legarda, dictated prime-time advertising rates and projected an international presence through its global operations.
The power it wielded was tremendous—anchors championed both on TV and radio their personal causes, while ordinary citizens looked upon the broadcast station as a mediator that could push the government from its inertia. All these translated to higher earnings and greater clout for the network.
Before long, ABS-CBN became a corporate entity whose owner had strong political connections and business interests to protect. Meanwhile, GMA-7 repackaged itself as the network with a heart, “Kapuso,” and slowly but surely eroded “Patrol’s” symbolic supremacy, and along with it, ABS-CBN’s market dominance.
In the third quarter of last year, ABS-CBN’s net profits fell to P174 million, a sharp decline from P381.8 million in the same period the year before. For the first three quarters of 2004, it registered earnings of P735 million, lower than GMA-7’s P1 billion-plus.
The signs were there, but ABS-CBN officials were in denial. Insiders admit the network became too comfortable with its star-oriented formula concocted by long-time president Freddie Garcia, who pushed entertainment to new heights.
The bias for entertainment was applied to news and current affairs programs that were hosted by pretty and handsome faces. Face value—more than credibility and authority honed in the field—became a top criterion for the choice of news anchors.
‘Slow Burn’
So intoxicating had power and success become that the network was lulled into complacency: it failed to innovate and missed new phenomena such as the emergence of reality TV in the entertainment field, and it failed to keep in step with viewer preferences in news that had started to shift with time. The competition saw ahead of ABS-CBN that the pretty faces era in local TV newscasts was coming to an end.
Against this backdrop, the imperative to rebound and quickly close the gap with GMA-7 became strong. On November 22, ABS reformatted “TV Patrol,” put in new anchors and new segments and eagerly awaited viewer reaction. By then it had come up with its “Kapamilya” tag, its counterpart to GMA-7’s “Kapuso.”
The new “TV Patrol World” (TVP World) with anchors Davila, former congressman Ted Failon, and Julius Babao, however, proved to be a “slow-burn,” according to an inter-office memo. Ratings remained below average at 19.8 percent since the September decline.
“This occurred despite several major news stories during “TVP World’s” pilot week such as the release of Angelito Nayan and his return to the Philippines, nationwide transport strike, as well as the aftermath of typhoons Unding and Violeta,” the memo says.
Improvements in ratings caused by coverage of super typhoons Winnie and Yoyong and FPJ’s death and funeral were not sustained. GMA-7’s 24 Oras still performed better until December 15, the night before the fateful Roces interview.
GMA-7 was quick to react to “TVP World’s” December 15 lead in Mega Manila. It dispatched a whole gang of news personalities led by Jessica Soho, Mel Tiangco, and Lolit Solis that descended upon Poe’s funeral on December 16.
The networks jostled to be first to bag the Roces interview and GMA-7 outdid ABS-CBN.
The Interview
Davila had strict instructions to get a live interview with Susan Roces. And to her credit, she did.
She began by saying how lucky they were to be granted an interview by Roces on her 36th wedding anniversary. She touched on inanities such as Roces using her deceased husband’s perfume and her wearing his socks on that special day. This, Davila says, was part of her effort to start on a light note.
“Ang hindi niyo po alam ay suot din niya ang medyas ni FPJ. Eto ba, ma’am, hindi kayo mao-offend kung papakita ko po ‘yung medyas?” the news anchor asked. (What you don’t know is that she is also wearing the socks of FPJ. Won’t you be offended, ma’am, if I showed your socks to the camera?)
The tattle ran for close to 10 minutes, navigated various twists and turns, before leading up to the unexpected. From a giggly interviewee who reminisced about her courtship days at the start, Roces turned into an angry but composed woman toward the end of the 30-minute live interview.
“Sabi nga nila gusto ninyo akong interbyuhin. Sabi nga ninyo, ‘Bakit mailap si FPJ sa press?’ Sino pa po ang magpapaabot sa inyo, sino pa po ang magpapaintindi sa inyo, lalo na kayo sa inyong istasyon. Parang nagtataka kayo bakit ganyan ang reaksyon. Kailangan maging sensitibo kayo sa damdamin ng tao. We can see through when we watch the news on TV. We can see what is true and what is fake.” (They said you wanted to interview me. You asked why FPJ evaded the press. Who else will tell you, who else will let you understand, especially those in your station? You wonder about the people’s reaction. You need to be sensitive to the feelings of people.)
Obviously unprepared for the frontal attack, Davila, whose voice began to crack at this point of the interview, replied, “Ma’am ako po, right now po, sa panayam pong ito, I would like to extend in whatever way we have hurt you (sic), and I am doing this personally. I am truly sorry for any offense we caused you, ma’am, but I really appreciate the kindness you have shown me in the last few days.”
All fired up, Roces complained about the ABS-CBN election forecasts and the crowds at her husband’s rallies not being shown in the newscasts. “The day will come when you will experience what we had to go through. Just to up the ratings, nananapak kayo, that’s not very nice. Masama ang loob ko sa inyo, Channel 2.”
Instead of trying to explain that the network simply reported the results of exit polls conducted by the Social Weather Stations, run by Mahar Mangahas, a cousin of Poe, Davila accepted all the accusations and apologized.
“I am humbly, ma’am, right now letting you know na humihingi lang po ako ng patawad in behalf of everybody that has caused this pain in any way,” the anchor said.
The ABS-CBN newsroom was stunned. While some of the managers wanted to shout “Cut!” big boss Gabby Lopez, who was watching the news at the time, decided to continue airing the interview, anticipating that they would have gotten more flak from the viewers had they cut it.
Consequences
The impact of the sloppily handled interview was immediate. From a 29.2 percent rating the night before, “TVP World” dropped to 25.8 percent that night. The aftershocks continued as ratings slipped further to 22.8 percent and then to 22.1 percent by December 20.
It was probably the worst thing that could happen to ABS-CBN at that time.
For the month of December, GMA-7 recorded a total day (6 a.m. to 12 midnight) overall channel rating of 18.1 percent in Mega Manila as compared to ABS-CBN’s 13.9-percent, according to AGB Philippines. Nielsen Media Philippines reported similar findings, with GMA-7 getting 14.3 percent and ABS-CBN recording 10.7 percent. Both outfits monitor and measure TV audience behavior.
GMA-7 also began to register a wider audience share. Audience share, according to AGB Philippines, is the “percentage of total television viewing across a specified time interval of a given channel or program.” Ratings refer to the percentage of a given population watching TV at a particular moment.
ABS-CBN president and chief operating officer Luis “Cito” Alejandro told NEWSBREAK that he, too, was displeased with Davila’s interview. He spoke to her in private and scolded her. “That was all wrong, Karen. You made a mistake,” he admonished her.
He said he had only two options: to keep her or to fire her. “There was no middle ground for me. We said, ‘Okay, you will learn from this, we want to keep you right now. This thing happens again, it’s an entirely different story.’”
Davila admits she made a mistake. “I handled it in a personal capacity and not in a professional manner. I acknowledge it was a learning experience. I really could have done better.” The following day, she wrote her bosses to tell them she was prepared to take the consequences of her action.
All too aware of how harsh live television can be, Alejandro acknowledges that the responsibility lies not just with the anchor, but with the entire news organization itself. Those in charge of the newscast could have instructed her to divert or to cut, or at the very least, helped her with the questions.
None of those happened. Instead, those in charge simply ordered her to “extend, extend.” The interview dragged on because Davila says she was instructed to allow Roces to speak. The lack of support, combined with what appears to be the unpreparedness of the anchor to deal with a hostile situation, had dire consequences.
Some long-timers at the network were aghast at what seemed to them like management’s kid-glove treatment of Davila. The resentment comes partly from her still being regarded as an outsider pirated from GMA-7.
Admittedly, the entry of former GMA-7 hires created a lot of tension and dislike within the media organization, and this is something that the new management team of Alejandro, Luchi Cruz Valdez, vice president for current affairs and training, and training consultant Maria Ressa wants to fix.
Patrol World
For now, focus is being given to “TVP World” even as a new set of entertainment programs and a reformatted late night news program are expected to be aired very soon.
Network insiders say that if plans are on track, a repackaged “Insider” will have ABS-CBN veterans Ces Drilon and Ricardo “Dong” Puno as anchors. It will combine news and current affairs in one program and show more analysis and perspective in the news.
“TVP World” meanwhile, seeks to build on what Alejandro refers to as an equity statement—“Patrol ng Pilipino” or being in the service of the Filipino people. Equity, the marketing man explains, is a value proposition that a product, such as a news program, can claim as its own.
Wanting to veer away from the tabloid orientation of its predecessor, the new team wants to position the newscast in such a way that it prepares viewers to understand and make decisions on their own based on information that is provided by reporters. Thus, “TVP World” will “not just be about local news” but will bring a foreign perspective to its viewers as well.
This coincides with results of a focus group discussion (FGD) conducted by the network’s research unit. They found that there is growing interest in foreign news owing to stories about terrorism and the increasing number of overseas Filipino workers.
Another new segment of “TVP World” that received positive feedback was “Citizen’s Patrol,” which shows ordinary citizens serving as reporters of community problems. However, journalists will assert that untrained citizens should not be allowed to report the news; the task is best left to the experts.
In the coverage of the super typhoons and the landslides that hit Real, Quezon, ABS-CBN reporters were shown on camera holding and touching interviewees and distributing relief goods to victims.
Valdez says this is also part of the equity. It is “going beyond journalism and into public service. It is the call of the times…. More than giving information, we should help others when we can.”
Some reporters felt that what they were being asked to do was no longer journalism because they would have become part of the story. Helping those in need, need not be shown on camera, they say, because it calls attention to them rather than the real story. This is redefining the basics of journalism, they point out.
Alejandro reasons that staging the attempt to help is what makes the act wrong and that showing images of reporters helping the needy “builds affinity” for them and concretizes the “Kapamilya” tag.
This is critical for a network that has been perceived by viewers as having become aloof and arrogant. In the FGDs, participants said they want news personalities to be “credible, brave, approachable, clear, and presentable.”
Cynics within the organization say that “no amount of sloganeering, branding, or equity” will stem the decline in ratings. What is badly needed, they say, is to develop reporters, “to train them well to go get the story and tell it well.” It is about building credibility.
There seems to be no conflict here as far as Ressa is concerned. “It isn’t different from what you’re doing as a journalist. What it is, is just requiring you to focus on your higher mission. The higher mission is to hold leaders, institutions, people accountable. I don’t think there is a disconnect between ‘in the service of the Filipino people’ and the values of journalism. It’s not a slogan, it’s your purpose.”
Rebuilding
In the past 19 years or so, ABS-CBN’s news and current affairs department has undergone about 13 leadership changes. This has been very unsettling for an organization that must compete on a regular basis. It has meant for its people shifting directions midstream several times and having to adopt various modes of survival, not knowing what the next leadership change will bring.
Alejandro, who has worked with multinational companies, wants to professionalize the network’s organization. “We have to make sure that there is effective succession planning among our reporters and anchors. That’s where we’re headed: to create career paths for them.”
In the past, appointments had been influenced by politics and favoritism. This was among the issues that the old-timers had raised with the new management. The setup, they point out, was strangely feudal.
When De Castro left, his departure created such a vacuum. “Can you imagine that? If everything is so premised on a character? How many Noli de Castros can we churn out?” Alejandro asks.
Sustainability and rationality lie at the core of the plan. In a field where talent can be scarce, people development is among the top priorities, Alejandro explains.
“Where we’re headed is excellent journalism. They’re going to be held to much higher standards. Reporters should be reporting the story and that is where their energy and focus should be,” Ressa asserts.
Having been through countless letdowns already, the network’s staff can only hope and wish that this time around goals that had been set would be met and that promises made would actually be kept.
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