Info consumers beware

CONSUMERS DEMAND!
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/5-7/2011



Every human being is an information consumer. We eat, drink, and sleep sopping up information, with much of it paid for by ourselves--through newspapers and cable TV subscriptions we get--or by advertisers, PR agents, political spin masters, religious sects, foreign-funded social media groups, ad nausea.

Behind every bit of information bombarding everyone is an angle the issuer wants imprinted in the public mind, be it to sell a product, build an image, or reinforce an ideology.

But most people simply are not aware of their being information consumers and think nothing of whatever is dished out to them, which their brains absorb without discrimination.

Consumers in the traditional sense are more educated about their food choices, examining labels for ingredients and expiration dates, than about the information they swallow--often hook, line, and sinker.

Wave of (Dis)Information
The current wave of (dis)information emanating from international mainstream media on Libya, for instance, is carried out through massively tainted feeds that reach the world’s population.

A prime example of this is a BBC video documentary report, where a humongous demonstration was portrayed as a 200,000 strong pro-rebel demonstration in Tripoli’s “Green Square” last August 22, which was, on closer inspection, actually a demonstration in India with the Indian tri-color flag that is very similar to Libya’s being waved by the massive throng.

That was done at a crucial psychological moment as NATO transported its Al-Qaeda cohorts into Tripoli by sea and, with its special forces taking the lead, helped them take over the crucial center of the country.

Although they succeeded, what’s worse is only few outside of those with critical perspectives of western information manipulation who follow anti-imperialist and anti-globalist websites such as the Centre for Research on Globalization know the real score.

Information Distortions
From the history-changing disinformation campaigns like the one cited above to more domestic developments, we can point out the main info distortions that Filipinos are subjected to everyday.

One current disinformation scheme I am detecting in the local scene concerns the Comelec and its continuing role in foisting manipulated “democratic” elections in the country. A campaign to boost the credibility of a certain Comelec official as a no-nonsense, straight shooter is again underway.

A scenario is being staged between the new Comelec chief and the election body’s erstwhile legal department head for the latter’s transfer to the “navy” so to speak, or his being put on “floating status” for being “hard headed.”

This official, touted as the Comelec man who was at the center of the “overpriced ballot folders” exposé (when in fact it was to the credit of whistleblower Atty. Melchor Magdamo), only got into it because he had no other choice but to pursue the investigation when the scandal came to light.

Staged Scenario
I know a scenario is being staged as I have seen it done with the same Comelec man once before--when Magdamo was put “in the freezer” during the 2004 elections for being uncooperative in the cheating believed to be carried out by the Comelec for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Still, despite what he conceivably could have been privy to, he actually did nothing nor exposed anything.

While I fell for the ploy and helped build this individual up through my columns and radio programs before, in the 2010 elections, when, as chief of the Comelec’s legal department, he went full blast in promoting the Hocus PCOS machines of Smartmatic, declaring that all “human errors” were already impossible with the machines despite expert opinions of the late Mano Alcuaz, an IT specialist, and numerous information experts of the University of the Philippines, my suspicions were confirmed beyond doubt.

As Comelec’s legal chief, he was also instrumental in justifying the removal by the Comelec of at least 12 major safety features which the election automation law required of the voting machines, despite this being a blatant legal violation.

Election Manipulator
Given all these, the first thing that easily comes to my mind is a “stalking horse.”

Defined as “something serving to conceal plans; a screen, consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game; a cover, covert, concealment, screen (or) a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something,” a “stalking horse” is indeed an appropriate term for the role being played by this Comelec man for the big-time manipulators of Philippine elections.

Another factor that I noted in this act is a certain Filipino-American Internet PR man, Perry Diaz, who posted in his mailing list, “Rafanan, the ex-future people's champion in the Comelec,” a puff piece that was fittingly criticized by Ado Paglinawan, a maverick Filipino and Hocus PCOS opponent residing in the US.

Factoring my experience with Diaz in past political struggles where I found him to be an FVR PR man, it wasn’t hard for me to put two and two together.

The Issue of Electricity
Of course, the one major information centerpiece that has had a continuous run of distortions over the past 10 years is the issue of electricity in the Philippines.

ABS-CBN and the entire mainstream media industry conspired (with some possibly being hoodwinked) into promoting the “reform” theme of the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) as a major move to lower electricity rates in the country.

This, by the way, is the same tact they are using to promote the RE or Renewable Energy law nowadays, which is going to charge us four times higher than the regular generation cost.

Alas, 10 years since the EPIRA, the public now knows that we have the highest power rates in Asia.

So, information consumers beware: The information you are absorbing everyday needs closer scrutiny. As our editor said in her column in the last issue, “Read between the lies.”

(My new e-mail: mentong2011@gmail.com. Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8 on “Sci-Tech Innovations: Key to Filipinos’ Economic Emancipation” with DoST NCR Director Tess Fortuna and DoST innovators; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)