Journalist and TV anchor Ed Lingao wrote about how the Philippine Daily Inquirer is not perfect, just like other media agencies, but how it still shone during conflict and crises.
“The Inquirer is far from perfect. Which media agency is? But it has stood its ground against despots, politicians, and all sorts of goons, armed, and non-armed, since it first put ink to paper in December 1985. Yes, mistakes were aplenty. But the Inquirer tended to shine in times of conflict and crises, when others would just rather kiss up or roll over and die,” Lingao wrote.
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He also praised how the Inquirer has been the home of some of the best journalists, and of course, some of the worst, too, just like how it is with others in the business.
“Many of the best journos I know came from, or are still working at the PDI. And, like everywhere else, some of the worst too,” Lingao added.
Lingao noted how President Rodrigo Duterte has attacked the Prieto’s.
“Lately, the Inquirer’s owners have been the target of very public attacks from the President himself, who tends to conflate the Inquirer with the Prietos. And now, this,” he said.
Recalling what he experienced in The Manila Times when he and his “dream team” had to separate ways, he noted how it happened because of the pressure from then President Joseph “Erap” Estrada.
“In 1999, The Manila Times was sold by the Gokongweis after immense pressure was placed on it by Erap. I always thought we had a dream team then – Malu Mangahas, Glenda Gloria, Chay Hofileña, Chit Estella, Booma Cruz, Manny Mogato, Gigi Go, Aries Rufo, Sandra Aquinaldo, Raffy Jimenez, and the rest of the bunch, But the dream team had to disband. And perhaps in a way, it was a good day for journalism when all these great minds dispersed to other media outfits and spread new roots there,” he wrote.
Lingao wrote this post on July 17 when he reacted to the Inquirer’s official statement about the Prieto family resuming talks over the sale of their majority share in the newspaper to Ramon S. Ang.
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The Inquirer statement explained the circumstances behind the resumed discussion over the P’ieto’s sale of their interest in the media agency.
“The Chair of the Inquirer Group of Companies, Marixi Prieto, confirmed today that she has resumed discussions with longstanding friend and business partner Ramon S. Ang for the sale of the Prieto family’s interest and majority share in the Inquirer Group,” the statement read.
The statement said talks between the Prieto family and Ang started in 2014.
“This culminates a series of talks that began between the two parties in 2014, and restarted early this year after the Prieto family completed its annual review of business plans in the Inquirer Group and other business interests. The due diligence review on the Inquirer Group will be undertaken soon by Mr. Ang,” it said.
It added that the divestment of the Prietos’ interest is a “strategic business decision that it believes will maximize growth opportunities for the Inquirer Group.”
Earlier this month, Duterte made his latest attack on the Inquirer when he accused the owners of not paying proper tax for a property subjected to a court battle over its ownership. He threatened to make an expose against the Inquirer, claiming that they did not pay P8 billion in taxes, although he was referring to the Prietos.
Lingao’s post about the Inquirer sale has been shared over 200 times and reacted to 1,400 times. It also received a lot of interaction from the netizens who had varied reactions to the sale.
But we noticed how Lingao has once again proved that he knows how to #burn commenters on his wall. Just look at his comebacks against some netizens.
When one tried to correct Lingao’s spelling of “crisis” to crises,” the veteran journo #burned him.
Sources: ( rappler.com , facebook.com )
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