Around the office at my job we usually talk about current events or hot topics during our break time, the topic of Manny Pacquiao and gay marriage came up, and we started talking about the issue, one of my coworkers said “it is one thing to oppose gay marriage, but to wish death on gay people is just wrong,” one coworker wanted my opinion on the subject knowing I am Filipino and he asked, “what do you think of your boy Pacquiao, that homophobic boxer, that bigot saying he wants to put all gays to death! what do we live in medieval times?” I responded by telling them it was all a misunderstanding and some political Filipino blogger named Granville Ampong added that Leviticus passage in his article to attach Pacquiao’s name to his extremist views and to get traffic to his article. I believe in getting the facts first before making a conclusion, but my coworkers didn’t believe it. They felt Pacquiao probably said it but his people put him in damage control and the writer was paid off to deny he said it.
You see even after new articles were up clarifying that Manny Pacquiao never said to kill all gays, the damage was already done, and this is what happens when you put something false in the media people will start to believe it, false accusations are a very dangerous thing. People must be careful what they say and do especially when tying a public figure to a quote that he never said. You would be surprised at how many people don’t even bother to look further into detail and believe anything the news puts out. The media has an obligation to be truthful and to present the facts, especially people like Granville Ampong who purposely and carefully structured his article to be misleading.
What Granville Ampong did was wrong, and it is irresponsible journalism because he knew by adding those biblical quotes surrounding the controversial topic of gay marriage people would believe that it was Manny Pacquiao telling him those verses from the bible. Ampong is a lawyer or at least claims to be one, so he cannot say he didn’t know what he was doing.
Congratulations Ampong, I hope you are happy with the hits your article received at the expense of Manny Pacquiao’s reputation.
The writer of this article wishes to remain anonymous.
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Erwin Lastimosa is a long time boxing fan and enjoys boxing discussion with his peers. Some of his favorite fighters are Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Muhammad Ali, Flash Elorde, Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao.