MH370

Anyone following the international news would know by now what MH370 refers to. It is Malaysian Airlines flight 370 originating in Kuala Lumpur on March 8 headed for Beijing that lost contact with air traffic control 40 minutes into the flight, and literally disappeared from monitoring civilian radar screens. (The flight had 227 passengers, two infants, and 12 members of the crew, 239 total. The 14 nationalities included New Zealanders, Iranians, Americans, and Indonesians. Two thirds of the passengers, 153 were Chinese; two other passengers were traveling with stolen passports.)
I do not wish to rehash what is available in the international news outlet. Our title actually refers to media hubris (MH) and we are keeping the number 370 to indicate that media’s hubris is no longer a rare exception but seem to be the order of the day.

I point out two media hubris in the current tragedy of the missing plane. One comes from representatives of the news media out to sensationalize the tragedy as has become a hallowed practice in Western journalism. No TV interview is worth its share of Nielsen’s audience without an interviewer asking the subjective question of “what does that make you feel.” Worst, some journalists covering the MH370 mystery pretend to represent the perspective of the families of passengers awaiting word on the final fate of their loved ones by highlighting fears and dread, or implying absence of transparency or promoting dubious conspiracy theories.

A pointed question on what the Malaysian Defense Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who had been holding the daily briefings, personally felt. In one of those “confrontations,” he had to pull in his wife and children’s sentiments and presence to show his empathy toward the families of the passengers. A tragedy has been turned into theatre.

I was 17 when I first went before a radio microphone as a news broadcaster, and my source then was the national daily that came by plane from Manila to the capital town of Tuguegarao in Cagayan. Without the paper, I listened to national broadcast with a pencil and paper. In either case, the choice of news items for inclusion was that it can be verified and confirmed. Reasonable comes in as a distant third, and emotions involved did not play a role at all.

Another item our international media keep pushing is that Malaysia had not been transparent in sharing information with the affected families, the concerned governments involved, and the general public.

(The behavior of family members of Chinese passengers in Beijing in demanding a more humble stance from Malaysian officials, e.g., one shouted at Malaysian officials to stand up and bow when introduced rather than remain seated and nod, stems from two cultural aspects: one is the Sino reflex to hold a person of authority personally accountable in moments of tragedy and expect them to tarnish their polished “face” with abject humility, and the other is the way Chinese are treated of late as second class citizens in Malaysia [traditionally true in the Indo-Malay peninsula that includes the Philippines] with the ascent of the dominant United Malaysian Party in Malaysia’s politics [Indonesia was genocidal, and the Philippines localizes Chinese names like Cojuangco, the maiden name of President Cory Aquino] at the expense of the fractured and leadership Chinese Party.)

Malaysian authorities and spokespersons claim to be transparent in conveying verified information to the local and foreign media representatives, but shun speculations bereft of confirmation. Fair enough.

But this is where the mystery gets a bit murky. We deliberately noted above the last contact of MH370 with civilian radar but was quiet on military and intelligence data. On the other side of the NSA spying scandal, and Indonesia’s charge that Canberra and Singapore were engaged in satellite spying on their neighbors, it is not surprising that intelligence gathered data was not quick in forthcoming.

I shan’t speculate. I am not even sure if China’s confirmation of the previous images of two floating debris came from 18 satellites, or 18 passes of one satellite, but one can understand why governments are not too forthcoming with their data if it came as a result of an operating system not otherwise publicly known.

As of these writing, palette debris was sighted off the southwestern end of the Indian Ocean toward Australia in the massive international effort at locating the missing flight. There are now 26 nations involved on two corridors, and if the Internet is the only source of one’s news, I can understand how many are drawn into all kinds of conspiracies and speculations.

It is March Madness in college basketball, and the EU-USA axis is still smarting over Russia’s unapologetic retaking of Crimea. These are three items on our news plates of late, and I trust the members of Chinese families at the Lido in Beijing will finally find out this week a verified and confirmed destiny of their family members.