The Manila Times Campus Journalism Congress
Credit to Author: EDDIE G. ALINEA| Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2019 16:15:07 +0000
On Thursday last week, your OUTSIDER was invited as one of the speakers in The Manila Times-organized Campus Journalism Congress, our COO and president Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd and his staff named “PRESSPECTRUM.”
That was the first time in five or six years that I graced such an occasion. The last time I was invited to speak in a forum like that was at the Universidad de Manila although I must admit I didn’t see there the enthusiasm the attendees showed at The Times Congress.
As the young netizens now are saying, “sobra talaga ang interes na ipinakita ng mga dumalo, specially on the subject on sports journalism. Due to time constraint, only three questions were allotted to the attendees in the question and answer portion of the Presspectrum. Most of the inquiries were directed to my long-time friend, multi-award winner photographer Albert Garcia of the Mount Pinatubo eruption fame in 1991. None of the attendees, in fact, were able to ask question on my subject.
Reason why two hours after the session, I was still in one corner of the Hilton-Manila Ballroon 1 answering questions from students and faculty members alike on the subject of sportswriting. There are 153 (31 faculty members and 122 students) in attendance from 25 or so educational institutions, one of the biggest I have the privileged to talk to since the Martial Law days as the sports editor of the Philippine News Agency.
Their main concern, of course, is how to write a good sports story and how to interview athletes and coaches, What are the questions needed to be asked, which I didn’t have enough time to answer. I promised them, though, to give my answers through this column today and in the future. Basta magbasa lang sila ng The Manila Times lagi siyempre i-advertise ko dyaryo ko no? He …. He… !
I told them in Tagalog: “Hindi naman ganoon kahirap sumulat ng sports story. Kailangan lang truthful ang reporter at honest, too. Kung ano ang isinagot sa interview, ‘yun ang dapat lumabas. No sensationalism, please. Bawal ang kasinungalingan. There are several scribes who have penchant to invent story to be famous. What they don’t know is the interviewees themselves resent that style. That is why nowadays, you can hear comments from them as, “Hindi na ako magpapa-interview sa mga ‘yan kahit kailan” or something to that effect.
I shared with them the popular lesson taught me by my tutors (I started as a newspaper carrier delivering subscription copies of The Times, Taliba, Mirror chain before becoming a reporter): “If stories in the front page of newspapers contain the failure of men, crimes, corruption, etc., in sports page are successes, accomplishments of men (athletes).”
I reminded them that when it comes to bringing out the best in the human spirit, there is nothing quite like sports one doesn’t feel in other beats. There is an intensity and richness inherent in every sporting coverage that amplifies our emotions and our connection with the moment and, indeed, with ourselves.
One student from the Emilo Aguinaldo College asked me how I was named sports historian by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission . Well, the honor, I answered, was conferred on me during the Annual International Olympic Committee worldwide celebration of the “Olympic and Paralympic Day on June 27, 2014 for distinguishing yours truly, the first sports journalist to have been honored for documenting the stride the POC and the PSC in promoting the different sports programs in the country.
When I was promoted as sportswriter in 1971 from serving the then Roces family-owned The Times-Mirror-Taliba chain my tutors, Tony Siddayao, Gus Villanueva and, to a certain extent the editorial department big bosses, Joe Bautista, Jose Luna Castro, Pocholo Romualdez, Rodolfo Reyes and even Teddy Benigno, among others, instructed me to read, read and read and incorporate what I learned to all stories I would be writing. I followed that to the T, as the saying goes.
When Maratial Law was declared and I became the PNA sports editor, I carried with me the reputation, I earned while with The Times as “ kung hindi pa lumlabas sa Times at hindi si Eddie Alinea ang sumulat, hindi pa opisyal yan,” in reference to record-breaking stories written by other reporters.
During my talk, I mentioned about having “bragging rights” to such Filipino great athletes Robert Jaworski, Lydia de Vega, Eric Buhain, to mention a few, and even past Olympians Teofilo Yldefonso, Simeon Toribio, Miguel White, the PH basketball teams that finished fifth in the 1936 Olympic Games and third in 1954 World Championships.
Bragging rights, you see, are earned by those who first wrote about these athletes and even memorable moments in sports history that not known by present day writers. Jaworski and De Vega, for instance, were discovered and developed as they are now through my efforts. Others, like Yldefonso through readings I made as taught me by the late Siddayao and company.
But I would rather discuss these in my future columns.