Tag: Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa on a BLOCKING spree as people she dismisses as “trolls” seek clarification

Maria Ressa is on the digital run shooting frantic defensive tweets at people she calls “trolls”. Most of these are merely asking her to clarify the statements she made in last week’s conference on “media freedom” held in London.

Her response to critics, however, run counter to the spirit of open inquiry she and her lot of “journalists” supposedly espouse in the conference. Instead of properly responding to pertinent questions, she merely dismisses her detractors and labels them as “trolls” or “Duterte proxies”.

Ressa is subtracting value from the very advocacy she champions. She has styled herself as the complete opposite of the open system that invites challenge and encourages free inquiry that evolved on the Internet over the last several decades. She is a T-Rex among the lumbering dinosaurs that are members of the ever-shrinking clique of old-school media practitioners.

Media firms that are committed to evolving into lean and resilient organisations that can compete in the 21st Century media landscape are well-advised to distance themselves from Maria Ressa. She is not the role model they seek. Rather, she represents everything a truly modern media organisation isn’t.

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Rappler and Maria Ressa: “JOURNALISTS FOR RENT”

The mystery persists. Why would anyone believe a government initiative presumptuously billed a conference on “media freedom” that is conducted by the Omidyar Group? Omidyar are deeply-invested in many media companies most of which are so-called reporters of “news”.

This is the confronting question posed by Ezra Levant to the various organisations that participated in this chi chi event. Levant observes, however…

No-one here cares. They all want some of that sweet, sweet cash. When @mariaressa said a $4.5 million grant from Omidyar no big deal, you could see everyone here salivate like Pavlov’s Dog. That’s what this conference is about: Omidyar wants to rent hundreds of “journalists”.

Right there is the reason why Big Corporate Media are no longer credible channels for unbiased news reporting. Anyone who receives money from “investors” they have direct relationships with are, in principle, no longer objective.

Unless Big Corporate Media find a new model for funding their “news” operations, they will never regain their lost credibility in that field. For now, they should be content just delivering entertainment. Entertaining an audience, after all, does not require objectivity. Besides, entertainment is more profitable, something Maria Ressa’s Rappler should put a bit more focus on — becoming a profitable enterprise for the sake of its shareholders.

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Who does Maria Ressa THINK she is calling people “trolls”?

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa has been on a years-long crusade telling anyone who would listen how she and the Philippines’ journalism profession are “under attack”. She summarily labels anyone who is not on her side as “trolls”.

But who is she to decide who are trolls and who aren’t? Did some sort of God of the Internet descend from the Cloud to bestow a crown on her pointed head and dub her She Who Knows all Trolls and Non Trolls?

Senior research fellow at Reuters Institute Dr Julie Posetti, is an example of a highly-educated but sadly misguided person who merely defers to the comfy position rather than apply an independent mind…

“Trolls”, Dr Posetti? Because Maria Ressa said so? Or because you know so?

Very likely the earlier. This is the lazy path many have taken. Ironic, considering this lot preach about applying critical minds to what they come across on their social media feeds.

Filipinos should not take being called “trolls” sitting down. Nobody on the Net holds any authority to decide who is one and who isn’t. It’s the Internet — the most democratic mass media platform on the planet. NOBODY owns it.

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Rappler CEO Maria Ressa admits to receiving $4.5 MILLION from Pierre Omidyar!

Under intense grilling by Ezra Levant, “Rebel Commander” at The Rebel in a conference on “media freedom” hosted by media billionaire Pierre Omidyar, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa inadvertently admitted that she had received $4.5 million in funding from Omidyar.

Interestingly, Levant’s question was initially directed to Nishant Lalwani, Director of Investments of the Omidyar Group challenging the sense of his hosting such a conference when, Levant points out, “no one here is not on your payroll”.

Lalwani then categorically stated, “we gave some money to Rappler…” after which he was abruptly cut off by Ressa who then proceeded to hijack the rest of the response to Levant’s initial query.

Watch the video…

Indeed, Ressa is behaving badly here. She is discussing an ongoing case she has with the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a public forum. To Ressa’s claim that she is “winning” this case, Levant points out that “Omidyar gave up his stock,” suggesting that Omidyar had, perhaps, recognised then the risk in his exposure to Rappler.

At some point, Ressa was forced to point out that the amount involved was “only” $4.5 million.

Only.

After a few more minutes of Ressa carrying on in her usual shrill manner, Levant finally reminded her that the question was not originally addressed to her — perhaps recognising the disproportionate defensiveness she had just exhibited.

Suffice to say, Ressa made a fool of herself right there and, at the same time, shot herself in the foot.

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Maria Ressa pounces like an attack dog as @EzraLevant grills her boss Pierre Omidyar

Not all Westerners are buying Rappler CEO Maria Ressa’s lies. In a recent conference on, you guessed it “media freedom” hosted by Pierre Omidyar, Ressa is seen behaving like an attack dog after Ezra Levant, “Rebel Commander” at The Rebel, challenged the ideas of Omidyar.

Maria Ressa hijacked the microphone, and proceeded to call Levant a “proxy for Duterte”. Levant can be heard in the background saying “Don’t do that, don’t do that,” evidently pointing out that Ressa was merely sidestepping his pointed questions. Levant went on to point out that Ressa’s troubles with the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission, further enraging Ressa.

Watch the video…

Maria Ressa knows how to play dirty. She shouldn’t really be discussing a case still pending in court especially in an international forum where the Ph SEC cannot give their side.

Levant quoted Ressa in a tweet insisting that a $4.5 million “grant” from Omidyar was “no big deal”. Levant goes on to tweet…

5. No-one here cares. They all want some of that sweet, sweet cash. When @mariaressa said a $4.5 million grant from Omidyar no big deal, you could see everyone here salivate like Pavlov’s Dog. That’s what this conference is about: Omidyar wants to rent hundreds of “journalists”.

Clearly Maria Ressa is being absolutely dishonest in her so-called “advocacy” to “protect” whatever “press freedom” is, she insists, “under threat” in the Philippines. The truth is, this is a time-wasting sorry excuse of an advocacy manufactured by a discredited thought leader to whitewash the utterly failed venture called Rappler.

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Amal Clooney was right about Arroyo in 2015 but today she is wrong about Maria Ressa’s “case”

Maria Ressa is insulting Filipino lawyers by hiring foreigners to defend her. I suppose it’s because it’s mostly foreigners who buy her lies. More importantly, foreigners lack a broad understanding of the context behind those lies.

These foreigners should take time out to recall just a few years back how no less than their resident Yellow “investigative journalist” Raissa Robles reported how they “reacted with disbelief to reports that star international lawyer Amal Clooney had filed a complaint to a UN human rights body on behalf of detained former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo”.

This time, the Yellows aren’t ‘shocked’ by Amal Clooney’s intervention into the Philippines’ justice system.

This is is a reminder of how selective the Yellows are in the positions they take. They reacted badly to Clooney defending their enemy former President Arroyo – someone who was being persecuted by then President Noynoy Aquino and then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima. Clooney actually won the case before the UN but the Yellows ignored the ruling and merely shrugged it off.

Now that Clooney is on the side of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, the Yellows are all cheers. Selective indeed.

All that said, I actually welcome Amal Clooney joining Maria Ressa’s defense team. She’s an intelligent woman and would soon find out Ressa’s case doesn’t have legs to stand on. She could still continue to defend her after she finds out the truth, but Ressa’s lies will eventually be exposed.

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Maria Ressa INSULTS the Philippines’ judiciary by taking her tax evasion case to a FOREIGN court

Tax evasion is a domestic issue that can be handled internally within the Philippines through its criminal justice system. It seems, however, that Rappler CEO Maria Ressa begs to be above that system and, in essence, above Philippine law itself.

News has recently come out that celebrity lawyer Amal Clooney will be “representing” Ressa in some sort of case seemingly framed around, you guessed it, “media freedom”…

“Maria Ressa is a courageous journalist who is being persecuted for reporting the news and standing up to human rights abuses. We will pursue all available legal remedies to vindicate her rights and defend press freedom and the rule of law in the Philippines,” Clooney said in a press statement released by London-based law firm Doughty Street Chambers announcing the relationship.

In what court will this legal battle be fought? Nowhere in this CNN International “report” are such specifics mentioned.

Ressa to Philippine courts: Talk to my glamorous foreign lawyer.

What is disturbing is that the charges against Ressa are very specific. But Clooney, disrespectfully lumps all these together into an arbitrary bucket CNN suggests she calls “charges that critics say are designed to silence her.”

Wow. Case framed around a flakey opinion issued by a nebulous community arbitrarily labelled “Duterte’s critics”. Sounds like a real winner of a case there.

Filipinos should watch this space. Perhaps there is yet another case to be filed against Ressa unfolding here — one that could be built around her very evident contempt for the Philippines’ very own and fully-functional criminal justice system.

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The Mentally-colonial “activism” of Joma Sison and Maria Ressa

What the heck has happened to Filipino “activism”? It’s become so schizophrenic and confused that it is now beyond all recognition. The country’s foremost “activists” are now rabidly and desperately calling for foreign intervention. Even top Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) honcho Joma Sison is calling for no less than the United States to come to the rescue of their hapless “proletariat”. ABS-CBN News reports that “Sison says US could order arrest of ‘traitor’ Duterte”…

“Without firing a single shot, the US can easily instruct its following within the military and police forces under Duterte to take him into custody as a traitor and to install vice president Robredo as the constitutional successor,” Sison said in a statement.

This position of the Philippines’ top commie runs counter to the sloganeering infrastructure of the vast community of university campus “cause oriented groups” infested by his own comrades.

c.2015: UP ‘activists’ denounced the ‘US-Aquino’ regime…
c.2018: Same slogan, different president.

This is the reason why Filipino “activists” — specially the communist variety amongst them — have lost all credibility. Indeed it is quite dishonest of them to be blaming everything that they think is “wrong” in the Philippines on anything or anyone other than themselves.

Sison has joined his pal Rappler CEO Maria Ressa in what had become the prevalent intellectually-dishonest “activist” approach of the 21st Century: Mentally-colonial “activism”.

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Maria Ressa hobnobs with star “human rights” activists George and Amal Clooney!

The most recent social-climbing achievement of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is the bit of schmoozing she’s been doing with celebrity activists George and Amal Clooney she exhibits in a recent tweet…

Ironic that up for “discussion” with the power couple is the issue of “rule of law”. Perhaps Ressa and her new friends should take a bit of time to recall what rule of law really means to Ressa’s real boss.

Back in 2015, Mrs Clooney stepped up to assist in an initiative to expose the Aquino government’s human rights abuses. Interestingly the key perpetrator of the human rights abuses being investigated was no less than then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima herself…

De Lima’s initial violation back then was in defying the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order on the travel ban against Arroyo. De Lima even risked disbarment for ignoring the highest court’s order. Senator Miriam Santiago likewise questioned De Lima’s action citing the DOJ had no legal basis to issue a watch-list order against Arroyo since there was no pending case against the former President and was only a respondent in a joint DOJ Comelec investigation on electoral fraud at that time.

Evidently, rule of law meant nothing to De Lima who defied an order issued by no less than the Philippines’ Supreme Court!

Suffice to say, Ressa and De Lima are real partners in crime considering both are currently in big trouble with the law. Nonetheless, both continue to be engaged in a mutual back-patting love-in likely to distract people from the real charges they face. Even from jail, De Lima is all praises for the failed “social news network” CEO…

Well, whatever floats their boat, one would suppose. For now, there is no fooling anyone else other than the folks within their little chi chi cliques the hierarchy within which the are clambering upwards as a matter of desperate priority.

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Ellen Tordesillas contradicts Maria Ressa, says “PH Journalism is as vibrant as ever”!

Queen of Philippine “fact checkers” Ellen Tordesillas finally fact checks Rappler CEO Maria Ressa! Ressa, we recall, has been insisting that “press freedom” is “under threat” in the Philippines which we have long pointed out is a complete lie.

Fortunately Tordesillas had recently come to her senses and acknowledge too in a tweet that Ressa has not been telling the truth at all.

Filipinos can now rest assured that “press freedom” is not “dying” in the Philippines and that Ressa had merely been foolishly crying out that the sky is falling and making a complete fool of herself. Ellen Tordesillas said so. She is, after all, the Philippines’ foremost “fact checker”.

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