Image: Instagram/@gretchenho
For Gretchen Ho, talk show hosts and journalists asking hard-hitting questions play an important role in society.
The television host and former Ateneo Lady Eagle volleybelle spoke her mind about the topic after a curious netizen asked her about her views on Twitter last Tuesday, Oct. 16.
A netizen named Jude Mangilog (@judemangilog) reacted to former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s interview with Vice Ganda on his show, “Gandang Gabi Vice” which aired on Sunday, Oct. 14. Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial kiss with an overseas Filipino worker in South Korea was “inappropriate.”
READ: Roque on OFW kiss issue: ‘I thought I would die’
The netizen said that Vice’s interview with Roque “is the kind of showbiz that we need.” He added, “Using the freedom to express to quiz politicians and officials and ask them frank questions on the way they acted in office.”
Image: Screengrab from Instagram/@judemangilog
Another netizen going by the handle @gabyhaar then retweeted Mangilog’s views and tagged Gretchen Ho, saying “You like what you saw with last Sunday’s GGV episode simply because that’s your bias. We speak according to our biases diba @gretchenho?”
Image: Screengrab from Twitter/@gabyhaar
This prompted Ho to reply to the netizen’s tweet, sharing her views on the matter: “We need hosts and journalists who ask the hard questions. Some will like the answers, others may not.”
She added that it is important to have platforms and shows such as Vice’s “to keep our public officials in check.”
“That’s the media’s responsibility in a democracy: to keep power in check,” Ho noted.
We need hosts & journalists who ask the hard questions. Some will like the answers, others may not. Either way, it's important to have these platforms & shows to keep our public officials in check. That's the media's responsibility in a democracy: to keep power in check.
— Gretchen Ho (@gretchenho) October 16, 2018
Like her, another television host stressed the importance of media in society — Bianca Gonzalez. She previously said in an Inquirer interview that it is important to be updated with news, as it will guide people in decision making when voting for politicians. JB
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