Press, pulpit and power

Media is the world's greatest power. It does not come from the people because people do not elect media men. It is even better that they are not elected. Neither does that power come from heaven because the divine power of the kings has long gone. It is like the power of the pulpit. That is why the press and the pulpit are the greatest power.

The power of both the press and the pulpit is not imposed nor enforced. The power influences. It works on the mind and the heart. That's what makes it the greatest power

And because of this, the responsibility of both the priest and press men are very great. They can bring the nation to either progress or perdition.

We need good Church leaders and also good media leaders.

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Alvin Toffler in his book "Power Shift" (I lost my book in the fire and I cannot recall whether it is only one word or two words) wrote that power has shifted from the leaders to the people.

In earlier times, a king would just order what his subjects would do. And they followed because the belief then was that the power of the king came from heaven. That was why it was called their divine power.

That power is now in the hands of his subjects, the people. The people tell him what to do. If he didn't follow, he is deposed. Or in the case of kings like Luis XVI, they were beheaded.

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And who was been behind this power shift? The press! Jean Jacques Rousseau was the leader of writers in France whose writings influenced the thinking of the people, especially his "Social Contract" where he postulated that there is an unwritten covenant between the leader and his people for the former to serve the latter.

Our own Jose Rizal, in both his "El Filibusterismo" and his "Noli Mi Tangere," like Rousseau who exerted the greatest influence in Rizal's thinking, influenced the people to stand up against the Spanish colonizers.

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Why did not the Church effectively provide this power shift? The Church of the Middle Ages was too much concerned of spiritual. History even shows there was neglect of the poor that brought about the Theology of Liberation and which the Church is correcting now and because of which the Church has now become more relevant.

Besides, the pulpit, could not get enough mass listeners. So not until Guttenberg invented the printing press and later the radio was invented that mass communication came about.

That's why I repeat what I said earlier. The responsibility in the hands of media men are so great that they can bring about progress or perdition for the country.

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How can we have responsible media men? There was a move once to license media people like going through a board examination like lawyers, doctors, nurses, and teachers so that we can have competent thought leaders.

But media was so powerful that government was afraid to touch them. The fate of the country is in the hands of these thought leaders. Why do we entrust a newspaper or radio or television work to just anyone?

It is always said by Bacolod media people themselves that some of us were just told to go to the corner store to buy vinegar and came back already a radio commentator.

If media people are licensed, we cannot hear of the so-called ACDC.

Well, this is a very debatable issue.

This came into my mind because of the election in the Negros Press Club today which I know NPC members are mature enough and straight thinking.

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I am very proud of the members of our Negros Press Club. Of course, we are not perfect but compared to media people of other provinces, our own media men are more responsible. I am just happy our group is a disciplined group. When I said, membership dues be paid on or before December 15 last year, 93 out of the 100 who voted last year paid.

Those who did not pay cannot vote in this election. But if they pay, they are members.

We had to do this to avoid the paying of dues of members by the candidates that takes the form of vote-buying already.

If we can continue this, future elections will not be costly already to the candidates. And he will not look for money from somewhere to replenish the expense. Or if it was donated by a politician, we will have an NPC president beholden to a politician.

We want an NPC president to be friendly to all so that he can easily get help for the Club. But if there is a perception that a politician bankrolled his candidacy, then the Club is destroyed.*

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