The alarming documentary A Thousand Cuts covers attacks on the press in the Philippines
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For anyone who cares about the free press, and who wants to get back to a fact-based system of laws and norms, one of the more frustrating developments of recent years has been the appropriation of the term “fake news” by politicians who merely dislike the tone of the mainstream media’s coverage. “Fake news” used to have a real meaning: It referred to deliberate disinformation, spread virally on social media and via unsourced websites designed to look like legitimate journalistic outlets. But these days, anyone in power who doesn’t like it when reporters expose inconvenient details about their campaigns, policies, or personal lives can just say that the press is making everything up, and that their sources are either liars or fictional.
The Ramona S. Diaz documentary A Thousand Cuts covers a group of intrepid Filipino journalists—led by the unshakable Maria Ressa—who for years now have been suffering near-constant harassment and undercutting from the controversial crime-fighting President Rodrigo Duterte and his followers. The framing of those attacks might seem awfully familiar to American viewers. Ressa and her team at the website Rappler have been accused of being unpatriotic for criticizing their country’s extrajudicial killings of Filipino citizens. They’ve been called “presstitutes,” who only publish negative stories because they’re being paid by the enemies of the state. When provoked, Duterte’s army of online defenders suggest possible solutions to his Rappler problem, such as: arrest the journalists, bomb their offices, and rape Ressa. It’s all become disturbingly ugly.
Diaz started shooting A Thousand Cuts in 2018, and the last scene in the film was added about a month ago (with everyone wearing masks to slow the spread of COVID-19). During that time, Diaz witnessed an alarming escalation in Duterte’s war against the press, as Rappler’s reporters found themselves implicated in what government officials described as a “matrix of coup-plotters,” performing acts of overt treason. A Thousand Cuts follows Ressa as she travels to the U.S. for conferences on press freedom, getting feted by the likes of Amal and George Clooney, then shows her returning to the Philippines and getting arrested at the airport.
A Thousand Cuts can be a little scattered in its storytelling. There’s an underdeveloped subplot about Rappler’s coverage of a local election where a Duterte disciple is facing off against a reformist. And Diaz can’t seem to resist including lengthy clips of Duterte’s earthy, rabble-rousing speeches, where he rails against the drug trade and boasts about his sexual virility. The movie is loaded with moments meant to generate shock and outrage, but it could use more shoe-leather procedural scenes, showing in detail how Ressa’s team goes about investigating the police’s abuses of their constitutional authority.
Still, it’s hard to overstate the relevance of what A Thousand Cuts reveals about a democracy sliding into authoritarianism—and what Ressa has to say about the proper ways to push back. Her colleagues make bitterly dark jokes about the last days of a free Filipino press, but she herself remains dogged, determined to exercise her rights and use every legal recourse to keep holding the government accountable, for as long as she’s allowed. “You can’t fight monsters by becoming monsters,” she says, as she keeps showing up to politicians’ press conferences and public forums. Even in rooms filled with Duterte partisans, Ressa calmly and persuasively makes the case that the press serves the people’s interests, even if—and perhaps especially when—it pisses those people off.
17 Comments
The news business can seem to prioritize things other than accurate info. If a publication wanted to credibly demonstrate that it was not “fake news”, one way to do it would be via accuracy bonds. Jeremy Arnold’s “Save Journalism Committee” on Substack claims to be doing that, but I don’t think most readers care.
I don’t think this doc is about what you think it’s about lol
The doc seems to be cheering for certain journalists and booing Duterte. Perhaps those cheers and boos are deserved. But I find more interesting the question of whether any particular news should be trusted or dubbed “fake” and why people trust or distrust it when they shouldn’t.
You think generic American fake-news talk is more interesting than Duetre encouraging the extrajudicial killings of “drug users” and then harassing people who report on it? You get that their situation is different than whether Fox New or the NYT are accurate right? You don’t have to comment on every article, ya know.
“Fake news talk” isn’t restricted to America. And I expect it will continue after Duterte is out of office. I also think it’s easier for a demagogue to come to power when there isn’t a trusted source which can check them.It’s a good thing I’m not required to comment on every article, otherwise I’d have to page through whenever one turns out to be in that slideshow/inventory format. I’d also be required to click on every Great Job Internet! Quite a dystopia you’ve conjured up.
What sources are you talking about that can’t be trusted to check him?
I’m distinguishing between potentially trustworthy news and actually trusted news. As noted above, I’m interested in when people trust or distrust even when they shouldn’t. If consumers of news highly prized accuracy, then news organizations might go to great lengths (such as accuracy bonds) to establish that to people who don’t have time/expertise to check each story themselves. But if people treat news more like gossip, then it’s easier for someone to say “Just ignore them” about a disfavored (not necessarily the same as unworthy of trust) source.
Is that what you believe happened between Duterte and the Philippine press that’s being attacked?
I think it’s a general phenomena, but yes I also think it applies to the Phillippines.
Would love some specifics, any specific really. Which Philippine outlets that are under attack by Duterte are seen as untrustworthy because it’s treated as gossip? Are you aware of what Duterte is accused of?I fully understand what you’re trying to get at, I just don’t think you understand that it doesn’t apply here at all. Accuracy bonds aren’t going to change Duterte’s attacks and his supporters support, that makes no sense, they’re already fully aware that he gave a free pass to extrajudicial killings of “drug users” and they love him for it.
Fuck that.
“Accuracy bonds” are a cynical ploy to deflect criticism by appealing to the same “NUH-UH!” attitude that pervades every news story comment section. And the fact that Substack supports Matt Taibbi’s receeding hairline of a career just speaks volumes to where their mind is — with has-beens and naive young champions of some kind of perverse and misremembered Edward Murrow fetishism hiding behind a paywall built entirely by people who agree with what’s being published.
It’s still subscription journalism. Again, fuck that. There’s a reason the porn industry has moved away from that kind of institutional model.
My impression was that online ads have cratered and newspapers are mostly relying on subscriptions nowadays.How are accuracy bonds a “cynical ploy”? Is it less cynical for a publication to pay nothing for inaccuracy?
‘Controversial’ is one way to describe Duterte, I suppose. Is ‘monster’ too controversial a term for you, Noel?
As a guy who grew in the city where Duterte made his mark as the longtime mayor, I would describe him as “Vile.” I have other words for him, but I’ll keep it PG.
No please, go ahead. I’d like to learn some Tagalog swears
I just saw the documentary and it’s chilling. These journalists have fucking balls. I grew up in Quezon City (Metro Manila) during the Marcos (and Aquino) years, and saw how being a journalist was and still is one of the most dangerous jobs out there. Extrajudicial killings are par for the course in the Philippines, and I remember watching the news and reading the papers/tabloids and seeing just tons of images of murdered people, but I don’t think it’s ever seen the government be so open about it. This stuff is scary and I’m really awed by how committed these journalists are.
A Filipino step-by-step on how the 1st Amendment in America can become a totally toothless joke. How ironic. And unless Trump is gone after the election, we’ll see more major strides in making that so.