Did Inquirer conceal information about Pulse Asia's survey to insinuate a different result? ~SHARE

What is written here are just my opinions.

I am quite upset at the title of Inquirer's online article titled 4 in 5 Filipinos still approve of, trust Duterte -- Pulse Asia.

The reason being is because I think it misleads people into thinking that Duterte's support shrinking and that his support base will not last very long.

It is a fact that many people just read the headline and don't bother reading the content and because of that, I think that the headline must communicate the facts accurately.



Other reasons why the title of this article disturbs me is because of what I consider two subliminal messages in the headline which says "four in five Filipinos still approve of".

The first message of the title implies that for every five people, one disapproves of Duterte which absolutely untrue.

The second subliminal message is the phrase "still approve of". The connotation of the phrase "...still approve of" implies that the approval will not last long.

The word still signifies a state that will not last forever. An example of that difference is like when someone tells you I will always love you. versus I still love you.



While this seems trivial to most, words have a very powerful psychological impact that affects our morale.

And since morale is an emotion, it can change in a split second and what Inquirer and the rest of Duterte's enemies are doing is to constantly expose us to the negativity.

So back to the phrase "four in five Filipinos".

The phrase four in five is a very powerful.

For example, if I say that four in five people is a killer, it makes you think there are a lot of killers.

In the same context that if I say that four in five still approve of Duterte you get a feeling that one out of every five is against Duterte.



"4 in 5 still approve" is a misleading.

The problem with Inquirer's four-in-five headline is that it is misleading because it gives selective facts.

The truth is that only 6% distrust the president. The 14% is undecided which means they neither trust nor distrust and 80% have big trust the President.

What Inquirer did was bundle the 6% no trust and of 14% undecided so they'll come up with the 20%. While saying that 4 of 5 Filipinos are for Duterte is true, it would have been accurate if they wrote, 80% trusted Duterte, 14% are undecided, and only 6% don't trust.

But then, Inquirer would probably never do that.