May 18, 2010

The new Chief Justice is the main headline of the Inquirer today.

Corona: Aquino doesn’t bother me. Chief Justice vows independence from Arroyo

The main front page headline today, although featuring answers by the Chief Justice to the negative issues hounding his appointment Play hardball on Corona, Aquino urged played out positive for him. I say Corona +1.

The other news in the front page today and my judgment on them follows:

Ex-SolGen tags ‘The Firm’ in drive vs new CJ - This news is a treatment of the same issue, from the point of view of Ex-SolGen Frank Chavez who lashes out at those pushing for Carpio to be Chief Justice. In the end, he also put the Supreme Court into negative light with the decision on the constitutionality of the appointment. I say this one puts the entire Supreme Court into negative territory. Supreme Court -1

OFF LIMITS Palace hides Corona oath-taking from media - Although there is definitely nothing into it, the title of this news itself proves negative to the PGMA administration and to Corona himself. There is nothing into it because indeed private ceremonies and inaugurations are normal occurrence in the Palace. Corona is even quite easily accessed by the mass media while the whole event is expected, meaning there is nothing hidden at all. Still I say Arroyo -1, Corona -1.

Thai troops tighten noose on Red Shirt camp - is a news exclusively reporting on the Thailand crisis with no political colors.

VEEP RACE Binay up by .8-M votes but LP says Roxas ahead = While the Inquirer has the power to side to the truth by checking their own media Certificate of Canvass and analyzing the remaining uncounted votes (as to where they are coming from), they instead let a he-say-she-say kind of report muddle the issue as to who is leading in the VP race. If only the Inquirer will do its job properly, right from the start, the people would have been more informed and we would have known which side is lying. However, perhaps it is too much to ask the Inquirer. In any case, I read the news as more negative to Roxas although both sides are given print space. I say Roxas -1.

House fight: Who controls the pork rules - This news just proves that the supposed fight for the speakership is actually a non-news, a fact that I was talking about in my radio program since it was first brought up (right from the start of the run of President Arroyo for congress). We have actually been reading trash all along and the Inquirer seems enjoy printing it. But would this piece of news rebound to the positive for Aquino as to saying he is in control? If we say the LP and Aquino is synonymous, then indeed it is positive for him. But is the LP and Aquino synonymous to each other? I am not sure, so I say this one is LP +1, for now.

Metro sizzles at 37.3oC; rains still 2 weeks away - while the Inquirer today was merely reporting the weather, it is noteworthy to remember that before the elections, weather news such as this means the possibility of brown-outs which means the possibility of failure of elections which means the extension of PGMA's tenure. I cannot believe people would really fall for that political propaganda, but they did. Now the same report passes by as if nothing happened. This news is politically neutral though.

So the score for today:
LP: 1
Corona: 0
Supreme court: -1
Roxas: -1