Two weeks ago tragedy struck the household of popular ABS-CBN news anchor Ted Failon when his wife Trinidad Arteche Etong was found lying on a pool of blood in their daughter’s bathroom, with bullet wound to the head, and barely alive. Failon himself brought Etong to the hospital, where the latter finally succumbed a day after.
Under normal circumstances and stripped of any malicious insinuations, Etong’s death would have immediately been ruled a suicide, reinforced further by the lack of any strong objection or complaint from Failon’s household members and Etong’s side of the family. Ted’s eulogy for his wife suggested that his relations with his in-laws were less than ideal; that his assertion of the suicide story did not meet any hostility from her family and friends would have practically and undoubtedly sealed the case shut.
Nothing was farther from what happened.
The police came, the possibility of murder came up, people were arrested, and Failon became a suspect.
An unconfirmed story floated around that an ABS-CBN reporter was the first to report the incident through the media giant’s radio station DZMM. So the story goes that the reporter, possessing raw information and a brain so fixated on anything sensational, had made the initial report that Failon shot Etong in the car after a heated argument. If the story about the giddy reporter is true, it could be the very reason why the police cannot rule out homicide just yet, thus blame should be placed on that dimwit who operates on the principle that a scoop is a scoop is a scoop regardless if it involves a media colleague, more so a co-employee. If untrue, it behooves us to wonder why subsequent efforts by ABS-CBN to defend Failon reeked of damage control. It could be that or ABS-CBN truly cares for its Kapamilya (family member) even at the expense of unbiased reporting. Or both.
Indeed, when ABS-CBN network rival GMA proclaims like a daily mantra that its treatment of news is “walang kinikilingan (favoring no one), walang pinoprotektahan (protecting no one), serbisyong totoo lang (true service only),” it speaks of the principles that it confidently knows ABS-CBN does not possess. The Etong case makes for a good argument in this regard. Consider the way Korina Sanchez, Failon’s co-anchor, handled her radio interview with Carlota Morbos, the household help who saw the bloody bathroom scene (can’t call it a crime scene, can I?). When she asked if Morbos heard a gunshot and the latter replied in the negative, Sanchez oh so eagerly volunteered the hypothesis that maybe, just maybe, the gun was so small no one can hear it being fired. Later that day GMA ran a news story featuring a gun expert who clearly and explicitly debunked Korina’s pathetic attempt to play Nancy Drew.
And then there was ABS-CBN’s exclusive TV interview with Etong’s sister Pamela Arteche-Trinchera, which the news teaser described as “Ang Susi sa Katotohanan” (The Key to the Truth). It was the evening news, and earlier that day Sanchez nonchalantly told her radio listeners that Failon’s employer would cover the Etong case in the most dispassionate manner and would objectively follow the course of the ongoing police investigation. How it became dispassionate and objective to declare that Failon’s sister-in-law speaks the truth while the investigation has not been concluded, even to this day, is beyond me.
Even as the ABS-CBN news people struggled to convince us in so many words that they could pass muster with the standards set by GMA and its News and Public Affairs team, such efforts were betrayed by what we heard on TV and on the radio. DZMM commentators took turns lambasting the police while ABS-CBN’s TV stations repeatedly and desperately rolled the news that Failon tested negative on paraffin test. Quite incidentally, ABS-CBN was not as eager to report that Etong also tested negative for gunpowder residue.
Investigators say Ted Failon’s wife sustained a gunshot wound to her head. When Sen. Lito Lapid heard this, he said, “Gunshot wound?! Grabe naman! Na-recover ba ang patalim?”
Finally, and true to ABS-CBN’s inherent inability to distinguish news from entertainment, Etong’s wake was given coverage by the station’s showbiz news program, Showbiz News Ngayon. Host Boy Abunda reported live at the funeral parlor while co-host Kris Aquino was at the studio doing her darndest best – and failing – to look morose. (For the uninitiated, Kris is a wanna-be actress whose thespic prowess relies on her facial emotions that are matched only by the versatility of Derek Zoolander’s model poses.) To ABS-CBN’s credit, it knows its strong suit and utilizes its advantage to the hilt, as was the case here. ABS-CBN fans are showbiz fans and by that, I mean your run-of-the-mill rabid fans that would lap up everything their favorite network says. What better way, then, to earn the sympathy of viewers than to let Boy do the talking. Why they let Kris do the acting is, again, beyond me.
Media industry critics already expressed dissatisfaction with ABS-CBN’s coverage of Etong’s death and the subsequent police investigation, and rightly so. As if government-owned media outfits serving as Malacañang mouthpieces aren’t enough, now we have to guard against a private institution whose power and potential to influence and shape the country’s future are being wasted on its penchant for tabloid journalism and fraternally biased reporting.
But you’re enjoying the show, folks, so go ahead. Lap it all up. ABS-CBN is just one year away from running your country. Just hope, for your own sake, that your future President will visit you in your hour of distress, and your Kamilya network will cover for you.
You deserve it, really.
