While at our radio broadcast, Sentro ng Katotohanan (DWBL-AM 1242KHz, 8.30-9.30PM TTh), we try hard to tell our audience that surveys do not have any value to the voters, especially in their selection of candidates, and at the same time, that surveys are important only to the candidates - to determine for themselves their course of action, and as we now realize to use the same as propaganda to create a bandwagon effect, the Inquirer by putting it in its headlines (Estrada ties Villar; Aquino up 19 pts. Prepare for surprise of your lives–Erap.) just made sure no one listen to voice of reason. With about 10 days to go before the elections, the main headline indirectly says that Aquino is the sure winner.
Not content on the survey gain of Aquino, the headline even "mistakenly" says that Aquino is up 19 points, while of course the real news is that Aquino is up only 2 points. Well I am sure the Inquirer had that wrong banner because of the physical limitation on print space (they can even tell that to the marines):
Had the elections been held last week, two out of every five registered Filipino voters (39 percent, up 2 points) would have voted for Aquino, standard-bearer of the Liberal Party, Pulse Asia said.
Surely, by treating the survey results as headline material, the news favors Aquino and Estrada at the same time while is outright negative to Villar and the rest of the pack.
Some glaring omissions though include the fact that the Inquirer report did not even ask Pulse Asia as to who commissioned the survey. They didn't even report what the actual questions the respondents were asked. They didn't even ask nor report the methodology used. It is as if the Inquirer have commissioned the survey themselves and believed it as gospel truth.
I checked on Pulse Asia's website which had the following statement to say who commissioned the latest survey:
Pulse Asia undertakes pre-election surveys on its own without any party singularly commissioning the research effort.
So Pulse Asia did the survey on their own volition (the marines has a lot of listening to do, I suppose). But what do they mean when they say: "there is no party singularly commissioning the research effort"? Does it mean there are parties "plurally" commissioning it?
Reading through the other news in the front page, there is none that can diminish the tilt towards Aquino of the Inquirer today. Even the feature on Gordon which mainly shows what Gordon thought of himself cannot even pull the news itself a bit to his favor.
With a newspaper like this, Sen. Benigno Aquino need not even print his campaign materials.
So, who is the Inqiurer headlines rooting for? The score goes:
Aquino: 12
Estrada: 1
All the rest: 0
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