NewsRecord Weekly Publication

No Baby Talk
By Georgene Rhena P. Quilaton-Tambiga

San Carlos journalism

What am I going to write about?
This question has been pestering me for almost a year now. The inkwell has run dry and I’d been writing using a pencil for far too long. It is not just to say our environs now lack the inspiration for a writer or are now devoid of materials for a journalist. I am saying something is amiss here but only a very few notice it. 
When I went back from a yearlong sojourn in a different career, I found myself coming home to my lifelong passion only to discover that the personal and physical impediments were countless and stubborn as the giant rock.  But when I finally came around to overcoming the impediments step by step. Alas! I found a barrier that I couldn’t remove with my bare hands—barriers that include people, news sources that once had doors open are now suddenly closed. 
I remember the time when I first became a community journalist in-training. I started writing essays that were my observations and opinions of events that occurred in the city. Then, the editor started giving simple assignments that involved a bit of research, a little running here and there, and few short interviews of news sources that weren’t used to being interviewed in the first place. 

With a little encouragement, I kept my pace and started building my little place as a community journalist. In the process contacts were established, some doors, windows in a few government offices were opened, and some papers that were once confidential slowly became public. It was a gargantuan task, a mountain that I slowly climb but until now I still haven’t reached the peak. The worse thing is the media in San Carlos is now back to zero. 
Many may not understand that the situation now is a catastrophe but it is. True, where there was once a lone community newspaper, an online society news hub, and a defunct AM radio station there are now two FM stations added to the circus—one claims to be solely dedicated to music while the other struggles to strike a balance between music, news, and pure comedy. 
When I realized that in our city there is now this merry mix, I thought I should rejoice but the toast got curtailed half-way its execution for there is no cause to celebrate. 
The very integrity of journalism that I seek to defend and live by everyday is now in jeopardy in exchange for sensationalism, lack of ethics in news gathering, commercialism, and worst, corruption. 
All the ‘isms’ that I am fighting against is now becoming the norm and the celebrated catch phrase while true and professional journalism is now barred from hospital doors by virtue of a memorandum.  
It is a catastrophe that news sources, with or without credibility, can now pay off for an interview. And journalists, true or hoax, no longer judge which statements go to press or to the shelf by virtue of the truth but by virtue of the payment plan. 
It is a greater catastrophe that there is no longer intelligent discussion of issues but sensationalized slogans that bear only one side of the story, that side which is most favorable and generous. In addition, endless greetings to all the ‘gods of small things.’ 
It is the greatest catastrophe that the quality of journalism in this city that was once climbing its way up the ladder of excellence has just plummeted back to the pig sty. 
Indeed, looking for and developing a story in San Carlos City these days like living a Calvary.