BRIEF HISTORIES Don Jaucian
In 1996, Armie Jarin-Bennett went to the US to begin an internship at CNN. At the time, she had almost a decade of experience working in broadcast media in Manila, and while leaving all that behind was a step back for her career, she saw the CNN job as an investment. She worked as a floor director, teleprompter operator, and was assigned small stories (“Maybe entertainment, kicker stories or fun animal stories,” she recalls), but eventually, she moved her way up, learning from seasoned journalists that she had worked with, including Christiane Amanpour. She eventually became a news producer for CNN International and then moved to Hong Kong in 2013 as executive director for Content Sales & Partnerships, overseeing local affiliates, including the newly launched CNN Philippines. In between, she won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for her coverage of the Egyptian Revolution in 2012 and was nominated for the same award in 2014 for her typhoon Haiyan reportage.
When she joined CNN Philippines in November 2015 as executive vice president and managing editor, she accepted the challenge of invigorating the fledgling network. She recalls: “I didn’t want to come in and say ‘I want to change this, this, this,’ because it’s very different from where I came from. I understood the many challenges that people were facing. I sat down with people, hindi lang yung from a distance, I immersed myself. I wrote scripts to understand how hard or easy it was. I produced shows so I understood how the equipment worked, or didn’t. I went out in the field to see how difficult it is to fight traffic to get to the story… I tried to speak even to the drivers and the rank and file and everyone so that when I made the changes, meron akong credibility, na alam na because I didn’t want to do that.”
In just a few months under Armie’s leadership, CNN Philippines has now become a player in the local media landscape. I joined the company earlier this year as the editor of its culture and lifestyle website, CNN Life, and it was always fascinating for me to see how she ran the newsroom. Recent months have seen journalism come under attack, so I sat down with Armie — who has recently been named president of CNN Philippines — and talked about the challenges of running a newsroom in the digital age, upholding the audience’s expectations, and what failure has taught her on the job.
SUPREME: What’s the biggest challenge of the job?
ARMIE JARIN-BENNETT: In the 18 years that I worked with CNN I really feel that my training was very strict. You know exactly what news is. It has to be accurate, it has to be fair, it has to be balanced. We’re so particular about (that) when we interview people who represent two or three sides of the story, even on the air we make sure they get equal airtime. If we are judged — the audience will constantly judge you and people will always have opinions, they will say, “You phrased your questions in a certain way that made you sound like you’re partial or you’re not fair....” But at the end of the day, CNN is always able to prove, to either critics or fans, that we’re always fair and balanced and I think if you don’t veer away from that, if you really uphold that, you’re doing your job. There are no opinions, no side comments, just the facts.
We want to continue to increase the number of people who are watching us, trusting us. And that is a big challenge because it used to be when they (ask) who’s your competition, it’s another channel, it’s another website. The competition now is everything that people can do while they’re watching or reading about you. At any point they can be distracted and not watch TV and instead go to some website... which is not a bad thing, that’s why you’ll find us on Facebook or on Twitter or on Instagram. (You have to) keep them interested, to continue to win more people so that they keep coming back.
A lot of people saw the potential of CNN Philippines when they watched the vice presidential debate during the election season. How do you think the channel has upheld those kinds of expectations so far?
We’re very fortunate that in this digital age, our audiences can talk to us directly. When we fail, or when they think we fail, they’re not afraid or shy to tell us that. So that keeps us in check. That’s why I really stop and take the time to read comments, good or bad. What I try to do is to keep the emotions out and understand why. What I’m discovering is that they just get so passionate sometimes and their intention is not always to attack you. Or they want to make sure that you know what you’re doing because our success will be based on how these people will continue to follow us and watch us. I try to understand: how much did they read? They didn’t realize that at the end of the story I had something good to say, that there was the balance that they were probably looking for. So now I understand: Don’t take too long to get to the other side of the story when you’re presenting two, three, four sides. Because sometimes, people don’t have the time, the luxury, or the patience to wait a minute and a half later — or two, three, or four paragraphs later — to get to the other side of the story. Now I understand, perhaps, you have to have an encompassing lead so that the person who’s reading the story captures all that they need (to read) very quickly so they don’t turn you off or stop reading you.
People tend to get passionate about national issues. As a journalist, how do you separate that emotion when you’re tasked to deliver accurate and unbiased news?
I get more emotional when I’m teaching people in the newsroom how important being accurate, fair and balanced is than I am when people say, “Ang pangit naman ng ginawa niyo.” It’s just okay because that’s democracy at work, people are allowed to say that. And I do need to use that to learn and to grow. I can keep that distance because maybe ang tanda ko na, Don. So I’ve trained myself. Do (emotions) affect me? Yes. But I’m also more challenged than anything to keep doing better because somebody is watching. If somebody’s watching (us) and saying something good or bad, that’s better than people not watching us at all. So it’s a sign. When they’re commenting, ibig sabihin nakita nila, nanonood sila, nagbabasa sila. Kasi kung hindi, I have no business.
You also said that we have to be particular about the words that we use in a headline or in a report. How do you make sure that is implemented well?
I always tell people, before you (take) on a story, kailangan talaga you know the background of the story, that you do your homework so that when something happens, you actually know how important or not... kasi sometimes these facts attack you at the same time. How do you know which of the 30 facts are more important than the others? We have a system in our newsroom called The Row, and it’s something that we learned from CNN. Our editorial leaders of the organization help reporters and anchors double- and triple-check facts before they go to air. We have to make sure there’s a certain language that we use when we’re not sure. Like I said, we’re not afraid to tell them this is what we know so far. Like (when the news of the Saudi Arabian airliner landing at NAIA broke a few weeks ago), there was a plane and people were (saying) it was hijacked and we made sure that we were not going to say that. I wanted to make sure of what authorities are saying and in the absence of anything from them, we simply say that the plane was there, it has been isolated and we don’t know at that point why that was the case. I’m glad I didn’t jump in and say “Okay, if everyone is saying this, we’re gonna say that.” And I don’t know what the other networks were reporting but certainly I told everyone until someone in authority tells us that this is a hijacking, I am not even going to throw that in as a potential reason why.
Is bias a constant thing that you keep in mind, especially now that people are talking more about it, or are you just focused on telling the news accurately?
My training is, it’s just the facts. Wala namang bias kung hindi ka nagbibigay ng opinion. So if one side has this, I make sure that I have the other side. If at a particular moment I can’t get one person to explain their side, I am at least telling my audience “We tried to call Person A for his side of the story and unfortunately, he’s not available but we will keep trying.” That for me is transparency. In the absence of balance at a particular moment, at least my audience knows I am trying to balance things out by talking to the other person. That’s why transparency is a key for us.
One of the rules here in CNN Philippines is that if you’re working for the company, you can’t comment on an issue or air your feelings on social media.
Sa atin talaga, hindi pwede yun. The reason being that I want our journalists to understand if you’re going to attach your name to the company, whether you’re working or not, you need to uphold that. Your opinion doesn’t count. That conversation and your comment don’t belong in a public forum, or you’ll lose your credibility. How can you make people believe that you’re fair and balanced and then you talk behind their back? Parang feeling ko you have to maintain that kind of distance. I always say this: Your opinion on the story does not belong here. It belongs in the privacy of your home, with your mom and dad and your members of the family, and your closest friends.
I read on Twitter that in these crucial times, the media should reiterate its role as a watchdog.
Journalism is not about being an ally of anyone. It’s about reporting a story that matters, that you think your viewer needs, something that’s important to them. Hindi pwedeng biased kasi you’re really not favoring one over the other. If there are two sides to the story, you present them both. If there are more than two sides, you try to present them all. It’s demonstrating to your audience that there are different sides to a story and I will let them decide. I’m just supposed to give them the information. I will not tell people what to think… I will give them the information that they need and they can make decisions for themselves.
What do you think makes a good and responsible journalist?
Walang opinion. You have to do your homework and doing your homework means you’re gathering information that is critical to the story, that you know your audience enough to give them all that they need to know, and that means you have to scour for information. And that is not easy. You have to ask questions. If (those questions) cannot be answered, you have to find a way to get answers to those questions. Until then, hindi ka talaga pwede tumigil. It could very well be that you get your information that you need today. If it’s not complete, you pursue it again tomorrow. I always look at it like a treasure hunt. I’m looking for the best stuff, the gem inside that story.
What’s the difference between safe journalism and accurate journalism?
I don’t go out of my way to tell someone to be safe. I just want for them to be accurate. If that’s been talked about, if it appears safe to them, then that is their opinion of it. But I never go around and say, “We have to be safe!” I just need to be accurate. If it comes across that we’re being safe, I’d rather be careful than make a mistake. I’m never ever going to twist my stories to make them look good or bad. I’ll never change the facts so I don’t offend someone or make a story look better than it really is. So to make it safe is just as bad is making a big deal out of nothing.
What has failure taught you about journalism?
It’s hard to recover from a mistake. The problem is it’s trust that you lose and trust is hard to earn to begin with. Ganun yun diba? When you betray someone or you said something against somebody that’s not true, even among friends, it’s so hard to trust that person again when you know they said something about you that’s not right. (Journalism) is a very public job. They can read about you, they can see you on TV, or talk about you on social media. Hindi na mabubura eh. When you make a mistake, people will remember and the next time they see you on air, they will question you. They will no longer trust you. I make mistakes, too, but I’m very afraid to make mistakes because yun nga, it’s hard to recover.
You’ve worked with journalists like Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour at CNN. What was the best advice that you got about being in this business?
Hindi naman nila ako binibigyan ng advice per se, but when I look at those people, these are people who are more visible to the public; but what I learned over time is that hard work really pays off. That if you’re really committed to what it is that you’re trying to do, it will all work out in the end. It has worked for me. I went to the States not knowing whether I’d get a job at CNN or not but I worked hard to make sure that I could demonstrate to the people there that I’m worth investing their time in. Experience is really your best teacher. There are a lot of stories out there and the only way for you to know how to handle them is to go through the experience. That’s why I always tell the millennials out there that there are certain things that you cannot rush. You really need to be patient. There are no shortcuts to learn the nuances of this job. Kailangan madapa ka.
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