The main headline today counts the number of days before elections (CountDown: 15 days to Go. COMELEC: No parallet manual count) and highlights the COMELEC's response to the Liberal Party's demand/request for a parallel manual count.
It seems that the paper tries to hide that the LP is the main party pushing for the separate count, the report uses the Makati Business Club as the source of the demand:
Asked if the poll body had rejected the proposals of groups like the Makati Business Club and a loose coalition of information technology professionals to conduct a partial parallel manual count of the votes, Larrazabal and Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said a random manual audit would do the job.
The news though presents almost wholly the COMELEC side on the issue and thus this time gave a positive coverage for the commission. Sen. Aquino and the LP is not mentioned in the news, so we cannot say it favored Aquino, although the MBC is said to support him. So I will conservatively count the coverage as not to have favored any of the Presidential candidate.
The election 2010 coverage news with Gordon in the title is not just about Gordon (‘Shady’ Gordon thrills Bohol golden girls). It is mainly on-the-road accounts of various candidates, including Gordon, Erap and Aquino. I say the said news report does not favor any of the candidates, although it is a bit positive for those covered, especially Gordon for having his name in the title.
JC Delos Reyes is at last covered today in the front page(JC: We’ve gone this far, that’s a miracle). It is mainly a report on a Delos Reyes interview and the writer is emotionless as far as reporting it. Nevertheless, this piece is positive for JC and I therefore give it to have favored him.
A news report comparing politics to theater seems to have favored no one (Politics as Theater).
This report gave a lengthy negative opinion on the campaign of Villar:
Take Manny Villar, the most obvious example simply for his ubiquity.
Villar’s commercials are the height of variety and sophistication, and the persona showcased in them is never less than appealing. Not only have they cost enormous sums, but the candidate himself has also been game to do everything to appeal to the broadest possible market.
Onstage, he’d be The Eager Beaver.
So far, Villar has done bodabil (dancing with kids); Method (immersing himself in grime to prove his humble origins); inspirational (poor kids—again!—swaying to the season’s catchiest melody); ironic (the early rap-style “Akala mo trapo” jingle); literate (the palindromic ad with lines reacquiring currency when read backwards); stylish (his pitch for the Nacionalista Party’s women candidates).
Anything that would stick, Villar has tried, short of breaking the taboo on using family tragedies to summon sympathy votes... But wait, he’s done that, too.
Meanwhile, what the report can comment on Aquino is only on the latter's seeming discomfort in being the center of attention, consistent to a non-trapo image Aquino is trying to maintain:
Noynoy Aquino’s ratings indicate he has perhaps the strongest show, though he himself lacks Villar’s thespic consistency.
Aquino’s first commercial, a glossy, high-toned effort with a phalanx of dreamy-eyed photogenic stars converging on him with torches in their hands, ended with the camera fixed a second or two longer on him. But his painful deer-in-the-headlights look betrayed the man’s natural diffidence and discomfort at being the center of attention.
Call him The Ingenue—well-meaning and earnest but, in terms of public presentation, still finding his groove. Certainly it’s not being hip or edgy. His second TV spot had him doing rap, in a voice that sounded as odd and flat as the commercial itself.
Aquino’s newer ads have showcased marked improvement—once a listless speaker, now he’s more relaxed, the talking points well-delivered.
His “Kurapsyon ang problema” spiels have acquired a tug of truth to them partly because he’s learned how to say them in an engaging way—what tone to use, which word to stress, where to pause for effect—accompanied by furrowed brows, no less.
“If he were an actor, I’d tell him, Good job, but you need more workshops,” says Joel Macaventa, a former theater actor and advertising guy.
Vera agrees: “His body language! He still doesn’t know what to do with his hands!”—incidentally a common problem among tyro actors who have yet to find an organic anchor to their movements onstage.
“He’s improved tremendously,” says Quintos. “I think he’s become presidential; he has acquired a sense of purposefulness. But he’s had to grow into it.”
Erap is also treated quite negatively:
"He looks old without the benefit of wisdom,” explains Quintos. “There is no image of the statesman in him, no promise of change. His visage doesn’t appeal to the youth.”
Both "loose cannons" Gordon and Madrigal are treated negatively, and so are the "quixotic" Perlas and Villanueva. Gibo Teodoro on the other hand is given the usual treatment he receives, "he is good if only not for Gloria".
Although supposedly an equal treatment to all the candidates, this news piece is surely for Aquino. The news reminds me of when applying for a job and asked your negative trait, you will have to say something that sounds negative but is not really negative and in fact a positive as to what image one is trying to project.
Another election news cover three of the senatoriables (On their own in the name of their fathers) and did not refer to any of the Presidential candidates, so I give it a neutral judgement. The news on Willie Nepomuceno's Presidential impersonations is funny and should not be taken as to have favored anyone (Willie Nep’s reality hit bites: Palace bets ‘Gut Talent’).
The question again now is, who this front page gave real positive coverage to? I say the front page is positive to Aquino in both direct and subtle ways, positive to JC, slightly negative to Villar and all the others. If I count the manual counting push as an Aquino agenda, I would have to judge the front page as tilted toward Aquino. But since the main news gave prominence to the COMELEC side, I rather give the news to have given equal favor to the LP and the AKP candidates. So it is hard to name the person favored today, so I say it did not favor anyone, for the 2nd day in a row.
The score therefore stands at:
Aquino: 8
Erap: 1
All the rest: 0
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