#HindiTama: How ABS-CBN made Duterte sound like a terrorist
With GMA Network spearheading its #HindiTama campaign targeting false news on the internet, I think it’s just right for it to call out its rival ABS-CBN for a glaring mistake that could have made headlines worldwide again for President Rodrigo Duterte for all the wrong reasons.
In a news article yesterday (November 2), ABS-CBN News quoted Duterte as saying:
Yan lang pantakot niya sa akin. Hindi sya magpabili ng armas? eh karaming de bomba dito.
The President was talking about the reported decision of the US State Department to stop the planned sale of 26,000 firearms to the Philippines. Unfortunately, an earlier version of the news translated Duterte’s statement this way:
They’re (US) using it to scare me. They don’t want to sell their weapons? We have a lot of bomb makers here.
Now any Filipino knows that the term “de bomba” refers to an air gun — you know, the kind you pump. The Spanish word “bomba” can be translated both as “bomb” and “pump,” and here the context is key. Duterte was talking about guns, and he was making a joke that if the Americans don’t sell us their firearms, we can just use air guns (de bomba).
As it was, ABS-CBN used the wrong word and made Duterte say “bomb makers” — a dangerous reference to terrorism. Foreigners reading the article would conclude that Duterte was making a bomb threat to the US. In other words, ABS-CBN made Duterte sound like a terrorist.
ABS-CBN later edited the news and took out the offending translation, along with this erratum:
Editor’s note: Our initial story carried an erroneous translation of this phrase – “eh karaming de bomba dito” (We have a lot of bomb makers here). Our apologies.
But the network still needs to be called out on this. With big media cranking up their attack on social media and branding many news sites “fake,” this incident is just one example of the fact that even giants like ABS-CBN are also capable of making mistakes — or, in GMA’s parlance, #HindiTama.
So how about it, GMA? We’re waiting for you to include ABS-CBN in your #HindiTama advocacy.
In a news article yesterday (November 2), ABS-CBN News quoted Duterte as saying:
Yan lang pantakot niya sa akin. Hindi sya magpabili ng armas? eh karaming de bomba dito.
The President was talking about the reported decision of the US State Department to stop the planned sale of 26,000 firearms to the Philippines. Unfortunately, an earlier version of the news translated Duterte’s statement this way:
They’re (US) using it to scare me. They don’t want to sell their weapons? We have a lot of bomb makers here.
Now any Filipino knows that the term “de bomba” refers to an air gun — you know, the kind you pump. The Spanish word “bomba” can be translated both as “bomb” and “pump,” and here the context is key. Duterte was talking about guns, and he was making a joke that if the Americans don’t sell us their firearms, we can just use air guns (de bomba).
As it was, ABS-CBN used the wrong word and made Duterte say “bomb makers” — a dangerous reference to terrorism. Foreigners reading the article would conclude that Duterte was making a bomb threat to the US. In other words, ABS-CBN made Duterte sound like a terrorist.
ABS-CBN later edited the news and took out the offending translation, along with this erratum:
Editor’s note: Our initial story carried an erroneous translation of this phrase – “eh karaming de bomba dito” (We have a lot of bomb makers here). Our apologies.
But the network still needs to be called out on this. With big media cranking up their attack on social media and branding many news sites “fake,” this incident is just one example of the fact that even giants like ABS-CBN are also capable of making mistakes — or, in GMA’s parlance, #HindiTama.
So how about it, GMA? We’re waiting for you to include ABS-CBN in your #HindiTama advocacy.
