Abraham Michael “A.M.” Rosenthal is a name that may not ring a bell to some members of the Philippine media. Rosenthal, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1960, was with the New York Times for 56 years beginning in 1943. He edited and oversaw the newspaper during some of the most turbulent times, which included the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal.
During the protests against the US involvement in the Vietnam War, a reporter who was assigned to cover that story said that he intended to march with the protestors. A.M. repeated what had become the “Rosenthal Rule.” “OK, the rule is, you can [make love to] an elephant if you want to, but if you do you can’t cover the circus.”
The rule came as a result of one of his reporters, Laura Foreman, who admitted she had been sleeping with a Pennsylvania state senator. Rosenthal called Foreman into his office, where she submitted her resignation.
On Rosenthal’s tombstone, the epitaph reads: “He kept the paper straight.”
Its founder, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, made the mandate for the BusinessMirror clear from the beginning. It was a commitment to provide people with what he called a “broader look” at the nation’s business.
While Philippine politics and government get all the big headlines and are the focus of “fake news” with press bias and not-so-hidden agendas, the business sector is not immune. Too much of what you read about local companies are simply reprints of favorable corporate press releases. And while these may be “the truth,” they are never “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
“Government vows to prioritize local contractors in infrastructure program” was the story. But the whole truth was that “DMCI Holdings Chairman and President Isidro Consunji said the idea that the domestic construction industry is closed to foreign participation is a myth rather than a reality.” That is the broader look that Ambassador Cabangon Chua wanted for this newspaper.
A.M. Rosenthal demanded that his reporters and writers get the story—the facts—and let it determine the agenda. In this era of fake news, too many news outlets formalize their agenda first and then go out to find facts to support their bias. That is why the
BusinessMirror mandate is to clearly state the government’s policies, show the statistics, and then tell readers what it could mean to them personally. The agenda needs to flow from the information; not the other way around.
The fact that “Duck output dropped to 15,490 MT in January-June” may not seem important to you, but it is one piece of the economic picture that does affect every Filipino. That farm-gate duck prices are up 5 percent over 2016 helps you understand more about the economy when the growth numbers are released.
While you may not think you will find fake news in the business section, think about the bias on both sides when reporting on the mining sector, telecoms and foreign investment. Our mandate is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.