WTF! Inquirer

Yes, today, I am crowning The Inquirer "The Swine King."

For its king-size PH story on the Asian swine fever.
A pig, a pig, a kingdom for a pig!
WTF!

I woke up past two this morning, Friday, 20 September 2019, and among my first thoughts was WTF! Was Thinking For, WTF, myself. WTF, I was thinking of what would I be dedicating the rest of my life to – from 79 years old last 17 September, to 120, God willing.

Of course, the first meaning of WTF is: What the fuck?!

WTF! Here are synonyms: "What the Hell!" "What on Earth!" "What in God's name!" and "Bullshit!"

Now comes, at about 4 AM, the sharing of Bruce Tolentino on Facebook of an image of the print edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (image above I screen-grabbed from the online edition). Because the headline is exactly what you see above, I crown The Inquirer The Swine King (pig icon from Aha-Soft, iconfinder.com).

Read the headline again – WTF! This is scary. This is deadly news! On Mr Tolentino's Facebook post, former UPLB Planning & Development Vice Chancellor Fermin D Adriano's first words in his comment are these:

This is what you call grossly irresponsible journalism, verging on the malicious. First, the headline does not reflect the content of the news wherein the deaths of the swine happened only between Aug 30 and Sept 12. It gives the impression that we have reached epidemic level. Total reported deaths of swine in China is more than a million within a one year period. Second, by sensationalizing (the) story, it hurts our entire hogs industry (that) is worth around P260 billion.

Well, Sir, that is WTF! Reporting. Our journalists, Filipinos here and Americans there, have notgraduated from stretching-the-truth just to sell the paper.

This incredible magnification of the news throws hog manure on the Inquirer's own slogan, "Balanced News, Fearless Views." That swine story is fearless views but not balanced news!

In fact, the authors of the news report, Germelina Lacorte, Matthew Reysio-Cruz and Ronnel W Domingo, their editor, and even the Inquirer management itself, will tell you that Truth is their objective. I am willing to grant that. Of course, I remember Pontius Pilate asking, "What is Truth?" but not staying for an answer. When at last you find the Truth, you are actually just beginning your journalism!

2 years ago, for my self-styled journalism, I adopted Zig Ziglar's mantra of what I call Truth THiNK!

True is it? If True,
Helpful is it? If Helpful,
Inspiring is it? If Inspiring,
Necessary is it? If Necessary,
Kind is it?

Journalism for Truth-Without-Thinking is easy – any fool can write it and any other fool can publish it.

I have a blog I call Truth THINK (https://itruththink.blogspot.com) where I first published my essay along these lines: "I, Teacher. Thinking How To Teach The US Media How To Think!" 06 February 2017, itruththink.blogspot.com). Above, read Zig Ziglar again.

Now then, this Inquirer hogwash has made my mind up – I am dedicating the rest of my life to WTF! – Writer, Teacher, Friend!@517