I caught the trailer for GMA-7's I-witness feature, "Condo" (or was it Reporter's Notebook) last night and it featured field reporter Jay Taruc literally making his home under a bridge, in unbelievably squalid conditions for five days, and experiencing first-hand how life is in the most desperate conditions.
I have no problem with features about urban poverty, as that is a reality we have to live with in this God-forsaken part of the world. But I take issue with how the issue is being presented on TV, because for crying out loud, the program could have done a better job by featuring someone who is really enduring the sub-human conditions and living under the bridge, not just some field reporting by a middle-class journalist.
I remember Oprah interviewing a newspaper journalist who went undercover for several months, trying to pass of as "really poor", moving from trailer to trailer, living on welfare and food coupons, in other words, she investigated and found out for herself first-hand how difficult it is to be poor, with Oprah nodding her head from time to time.
Amazing. Did she really have to do that? Damn eejits. The producers could have chosen the POOR themselves. (And you people wonder why I'm not an Oprah fan!)
This is not the first time Taruc engaged himself in dramatic reporting. He has pulled this stunt before. One time, he took a bath at a tiny bathroom slightly larger than your average refrigerator, in some dorm in Quiapo or Morayta area, occasionally pouring water over his head from a dipper, in between his spiels, just so the viewers can relate to the difficulties most students endure when taking a bath in the U-belt area. The humanity!
He's also fond of the double-camera takes: he is usually seen shooting his subjects with a video camera, by the camera man! For effects! Howie Severino does this as well, but it is different because he usually does all the camera work himself.
I'm not just being my usual KJ (kill-joy) self here. You know, instead of gaining valuable insights into the lamentable situation many of our countrymen are mired in, we end up irritated. You want to support the show. You believe in its cause. In the end, you flick the remote to Spongebob Squarepants.
That’s the problem with so-called serious programs such as investigative reports. The presenters take themselves too seriously; it’s as if the weight of the world were in their shoulders. Unfortunately, they usually succeed in annoying the viewers instead.
You think foreign news programs are better? Think again. CNN's veteran anchor Miles O'Brien is unbearably corny I really believe he should transfer to Oprah's show instead. I remember clearly O'Brien suddenly becoming a composer and lyricist when he featured his own musical composition, sort of a tribute to the Oklahoma bombings in the 90’s, over CNN! (Can you really do that?).
In the latest Katrina episode in New Orleans, he just had to taste the water behind him to prove to the viewers that sea water had indeed seeped into the neighborhood when the levee broke. (gasp!).
Also, Al Roper, you know the black guy who looks like a cross between a genie and Shaq O’Neil, who does the weather reports on NBC’s Today, had to grope and generally trip and fall over in the middle of the storm at the height of Katrina. Again the question, did he really have to do that?
Back here, Karen Davila is a classic. When Bobby Yan was beside himself grieving over the death of his brother, Rico Yan, guess what question Davila asked Bobby. Yup. With teary eyes and a voice to match she asked him, “How do you feel?”.
To think that she never fails to remind people that she won a CNN award.
And so I watch MAD TV instead.
I have no problem with features about urban poverty, as that is a reality we have to live with in this God-forsaken part of the world. But I take issue with how the issue is being presented on TV, because for crying out loud, the program could have done a better job by featuring someone who is really enduring the sub-human conditions and living under the bridge, not just some field reporting by a middle-class journalist.
I remember Oprah interviewing a newspaper journalist who went undercover for several months, trying to pass of as "really poor", moving from trailer to trailer, living on welfare and food coupons, in other words, she investigated and found out for herself first-hand how difficult it is to be poor, with Oprah nodding her head from time to time.
Amazing. Did she really have to do that? Damn eejits. The producers could have chosen the POOR themselves. (And you people wonder why I'm not an Oprah fan!)
This is not the first time Taruc engaged himself in dramatic reporting. He has pulled this stunt before. One time, he took a bath at a tiny bathroom slightly larger than your average refrigerator, in some dorm in Quiapo or Morayta area, occasionally pouring water over his head from a dipper, in between his spiels, just so the viewers can relate to the difficulties most students endure when taking a bath in the U-belt area. The humanity!
He's also fond of the double-camera takes: he is usually seen shooting his subjects with a video camera, by the camera man! For effects! Howie Severino does this as well, but it is different because he usually does all the camera work himself.
I'm not just being my usual KJ (kill-joy) self here. You know, instead of gaining valuable insights into the lamentable situation many of our countrymen are mired in, we end up irritated. You want to support the show. You believe in its cause. In the end, you flick the remote to Spongebob Squarepants.
That’s the problem with so-called serious programs such as investigative reports. The presenters take themselves too seriously; it’s as if the weight of the world were in their shoulders. Unfortunately, they usually succeed in annoying the viewers instead.
You think foreign news programs are better? Think again. CNN's veteran anchor Miles O'Brien is unbearably corny I really believe he should transfer to Oprah's show instead. I remember clearly O'Brien suddenly becoming a composer and lyricist when he featured his own musical composition, sort of a tribute to the Oklahoma bombings in the 90’s, over CNN! (Can you really do that?).
In the latest Katrina episode in New Orleans, he just had to taste the water behind him to prove to the viewers that sea water had indeed seeped into the neighborhood when the levee broke. (gasp!).
Also, Al Roper, you know the black guy who looks like a cross between a genie and Shaq O’Neil, who does the weather reports on NBC’s Today, had to grope and generally trip and fall over in the middle of the storm at the height of Katrina. Again the question, did he really have to do that?
Back here, Karen Davila is a classic. When Bobby Yan was beside himself grieving over the death of his brother, Rico Yan, guess what question Davila asked Bobby. Yup. With teary eyes and a voice to match she asked him, “How do you feel?”.
To think that she never fails to remind people that she won a CNN award.
And so I watch MAD TV instead.
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