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[av_heading heading=’NO FILTER | Mocha Uson takes on ‘fake news’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Saturday, May 13, 2017
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LIKE some form of twisted satire coming to life, Mocha Uson has been appointed assistant secretary under the Presidential Communications Operations Office with a salary grade of SG 29 to boot (at least P106,454 a month).
And with just a dash of self-deprecating sarcasm, the lady blogger has vowed to lead a crusade against “fake news.”
One of my favorite quotes remains to be, “Journalists write the first draft of history,” as quipped by a 1940s The Washington Post publisher.
In the less tumultuous times of our titos and titas, media — newspapers and radio and television broadcasts — proved the sole source of credible information. What media reported would eventually go down in history and be considered fact.
The popular opinion of the people was once also dictated by these same channels of information dissemination, being the most accessible means to gain news and current affairs.
Back then our thought leaders — from whom we mirrored our “well-informed” opinion — were journalists, news anchors and the people in power.
But with the advent of social media, the power to shape the country’s collective opinion has become largely democratized.
Now everyone has in their hands the power to become a citizen journalist or an influential thought leader. Now, with just a few clicks on Facebook, any ordinary Filipino can broadcast their ramblings and personal judgments. The potential audience: the world.
This brings us to the other end of the spectrum: Joseph Goebbels — Hitler’s Nazi propaganda minister — once said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Case in point: Mocha Uson. The former risqué dancer, actress and sex columnist is now arguably the most powerful self-confessed “non-journalist” on Philippine social media.
Mocha Uson’s meteoric rise as a political commentator has baffled a lot of people. Her page now has more than 5 million “likers,” her reach vastly exceeding the two largest media conglomerates in the country.
Born Margaux Justiniano Uson, Mocha was a medical technology graduate from the University of Santo Tomas before becoming the front-woman of the risqué girl group Mocha Girls. Her father, Oscar Uson, a regional trial court judge, was assassinated in September 2002 for his involvement in a sensitive case. His killing has remained largely unsolved, a fact that Mocha often attributes to why she has become drawn to zealously support Duterte who to her is a champion of justice.
How has the former sultry C-list starlet seized so many avid followers?
Simply put, many people have felt disenfranchised and betrayed by mainstream media. The ka-DDS (Duterte Diehard Supporters) see journalists reporting on the Duterte administration’s many faults and inconsistencies as an active smear campaign to take down their canonized leader.
And here comes Mocha Uson welcoming them into her plentiful bosom, sharing their opinion and offering daily updates that feed into their “Duterte will save us all” fanaticism.
In light of this recent change in the times, even Malacañang announced that it may soon open its doors to “bloggers” like Mocha Uson, as well as the uncompromisingly pro-Duterte “Thinking Pinoy.”
Imagine that: the Malacañang Press Corps competing with iPhone-brandishing, Facebook-livestreaming, Twitter-ranting bloggers for airtime and the chance to interview politicians and senior cabinet members.
So, who’s afraid of Mocha Uson?
Given that “unbiased” “objective” “impartial” journalists should be who’ll dictate how the current administration will be remembered and how it will go down in our history books (and not the people who are unabashedly self-confessed disciples of a particular leader), maybe we should all be afraid./PN
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