MY MEDIA ENGLISH WATCH

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When media are less than careful choosing metaphors and words

Our English-language print and broadcast media are supposed to report both the good news and bad news objectively, phrasing them as accurately and clearly as possible to avoid confusion or misunderstanding. When they mix metaphors and make ill-advised word choices in their stories, however, they not only do a great disservice to their readers but also denigrate or falsely portray the people they are reporting about.

This weekend, I found two news stories in the major Metro Manila broadsheets that have been embarrassingly less than careful in their choice of metaphors and words, as follows:

(1) Philippine News Agency: Mistaking the word “fodder” with “blessings”

The above news story is meant to extol the laudable deed of an overseas Filipino worker, but by mixing an already iffy metaphor with an ill-advised word choice, it gives that deed a derogatory character instead. The idiomatic expression “to seek greener pastures,” despite its strong literal correlation with animal feed, is perfectly acceptable to describe someone’s search for a better life or a more promising situation. But to say that the subject OFW in the story found one such greener pasture and “now shares the fodder with her countrymen” borders on the ludicrous.

The word “fodder” literally means something fed to domestic animals, especially coarse food for cattle, horses, or sheep; figuratively, it means inferior or readily available material used to supply a heavy demand, as in “gossip is fodder for tabloids” or “soldiers are used as cannon fodder during wartime.” So, by no stretch of the rational imagination can “fodder” be used to mean “blessings,” which is evidently what the occasion calls for and what the reporter meant in that lead sentence. Indeed, the use of the word “fodder” in that story insults both its giver and its receiver.

Newspaper reporters and editors should be much more careful and circumspect than this with their metaphors and word choices, particularly for stories meant to honor people for their good deeds. Otherwise, their stories will just end up denigrating the honorees and, in this particular case, leave a terribly bad taste in the mouth of the readers.

Here’s how that lead statement might be elevated from the animal level to the human plane:

“Marilyn “Wafa” Kasimieh left the Philippines to seek for greener pastures abroad. She found one, and now shares her blessings with her countrymen.”

or:

“Marilyn “Wafa” Kasimieh left the Philippines to seek for greener pastures abroad. She found one, and now shares her good fortune with her countrymen.”

(2) GMA News Online: Semantic overkill in crime reporting

The lead sentence above goes grammatically and legally overboard by qualifying a “probable cause” finding by a court with that phrase indicating the likely guilt of the accused. We all know, of course, that unless an accused confesses right off to committing the crime, the determination of his or her guilt can come only after being duly tried in court. Talk of guilt is therefore for much later. This is because by definition, “probable cause” isn’t guilt per se. It refers only to:

“Apparent facts discovered through logical inquiry that would lead a reasonably intelligent and prudent person to believe that an accused person has committed a crime, thereby warranting his or her prosecution…

“Probable cause is a level of reasonable belief, based on facts that can be articulated, that is required to sue a person in civil court or to arrest and prosecute a person in criminal court. Before a person can be sued or arrested and prosecuted, the civil plaintiff or police and prosecutor must possess enough facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the claim or charge is true.” (Legal Dictionary, TheFreeDictionary.com)

We can make that lead sentence grammatically and semantically aboveboard—and objective as well—by eliminating its allusion to the apparent “guilt” of the accused and referring only to the crime they are alleged to have committed, as follows:

“The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 1 has found “probable cause” that seven policemen, including one police official, had tortured a suspect right inside a police station – as shown in a video of the crime itself that was uploaded to the Internet August last year – and ordered the issuance of warrants for their arrest.”

SHORT TAKES IN MY MEDIA ENGLISH WATCH:

(1) ABS-CBN News: Subject-verb agreement dilemma  

The lead sentence above has a serious subject-verb agreement dilemma in the coordinate clause “the cause of death are crown-of-thorns starfish.” Since the subject is the singular-form noun phrase “the cause of death,” it logically follows that the linking verb shouldn’t be the plural-form “are” but the singular form “is.” However, to change that linking verb to “is” won’t agree with the subject complement “crown-of-thorns starfish,” which is evidently being used in the plural form.

So how do we resolve this grammatical dilemma?

One good way is to make the term “crown-of-thorns starfish” a singular mass noun by preceding it with the article “the,” as follows:

“Photographs taken by divers in Barangay Siit, Siaton, Negros Oriental showed dead corals and that the cause of death is the crown-of-thorns starfish.”

Another good way is to make the singular mass noun “the crown-of-thorns starfish” as the subject of that coordinate clause serving as subject complement, as follows:

“Photographs taken by divers in Barangay Siit, Siaton, Negros Oriental showed dead corals and that the crown-of-thorns starfish is the cause of death.”

(2) ABS-CBN News: Preposition misuse

From the circumstances of the incident above, it’s not possible for the cargo carrier to have “rammed into 2 small fishing vessels.” This is because the cargo carrier is a much larger vessel than the fishing boats and couldn’t possibly get inside them; physically, in fact, that cargo carrier could only “ram”—not “ram into”—those much smaller fishing boats. Conversely, however, those fishing boats can “ram into” that cargo carrier in the sense that they can possibly get inside it because of the force of the collision.

The elimination of the preposition “into” can therefore put that lead sentence on an even keel:

“A cargo carrier rammed two small fishing vessels in Zamboanga City Wednesday dawn due to strong gusts of wind.”

(3) The Manila Times: Preposition misuse; unclear object of the preposition

In the lead sentence above, the verb phrase “was deported out of the country” is grammatically wrong. This is because the verb “deport,” which means “to legally send someone out of the country,” already subsumes the adverb “out.” Also, it’s much better to specify which country the fugitive was deported from, for the way that lead sentence is constructed, the reader couldn’t readily figure out whether he was deported from the United States or from the Philippines. That verb phrase therefore should be worded as “deported from the Philippines,” as in this corrected version of that lead sentence:

“An American fugitive wanted for trafficking and possession of illegal drugs in the United States was deported from the Philippines earlier this week, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Friday.”

(4) Philippine Information Agency: Extremely convoluted noun phrase as subject

The lead sentence above makes for insufferable reading because its subject is an interminably long noun phrase that consists of so many long proper names and qualifiers, thus unduly delaying the appearance of the operative verb “opened” 35 words later. To make such sentences easier to read and digest, it’s best to introduce its subject and operative verb as early as possible in the sentence, as follows:

“DAVAO CITY, Philippines (PIA) – A model cacao nursery at was recently opened at Kilometer 12, Bernabe Subdivision, Catalunan Pequeño, in this city by the Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance. The ACDI/VOCA is an international non-profit organization that implements the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded CoCoPal (Coconut, Cacao, and Palay) Integrated Farming Systems Project in Mindanao.”

A FOLLOW-THROUGH ON PHILIPPINE TOURISM REPORTING:

Two weeks ago, I made a critique of the misleading tourism reporting by the Philippine Star on the Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan (When misinformation and wrong logic bedevil tourism reporting).

This time I’d like to call attention to another tourism story that shows ignorance of the regional geography of the Philippines and their respective tourist attractions. The feature story in the Manila Bulletin about Iriga City in CamSur is accompanied by the following photo of the Mayon Volcano, which is located in Albay province adjoining CamSur.

Panoramic view of Mt. Mayon   

And now here are the opening paragraphs of that tourism feature story about Iriga City in CamSur:

Now the problem with this feature story about Iriga City in CamSur is that it’s accompanied by a photo of a tourist attraction not located in that city and province but in Albay, another province in the Bicol Region. True, Mayon Volcano is visible from Iriga City and in many places in eastern CamSur, but to use that photo in this story about Iriga City not only gives the wrong impression that Mayon Volcano is a tourist attraction located in CamSur, but also that CamSur and Iriga City itself have nothing to offer by way of a mountain attraction. This isn’t the case at all! Iriga City has the majestic Mt. Iriga within its periphery, and CamSur also has Mt. Isarog to offer. These volcanoes may not have a perfect cone like Mayon Volcano, but they are fine tourist attractions in their own right. And, as mentioned in the feature story itself, Iriga City will be hosting the prestigious Gayon Bicol Festival this coming February—surely a bigger tourist come-on for Iriga City worthy of a photo treatment than a volcano in another province!

So, if not out of the writer’s or editor’s poor awareness of Philippine geography, why is the feature story about Iriga City presenting the picture of Mayon Volcano as its major tourist attraction? Our media need to be much more discerning than this to do a good job promoting the country as a tourist destination.

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