Monopoly in the marketplace of ideas
The Bohol Tribune will soon have its counterpart in the airwaves. While other media organizations welcome this development, a few seem to move heaven and earth to prevent its first broadcast. We always believe that the marketplace of ideas should be kept free and open to any interested participant, with no unnecessary burdens imposed on whoever wants to venture into the advocacy of ferreting out the truth and improving public policy and governance.
While others may have established a profitable business empire for years out of influencing public policy and constructing public opinion, the Bohol Tribune was born out of a passion for becoming a meaningful participant in a market where the rewards come in the form of the fulfillment of an altruistic mission of providing diversity and more choices for the expression of ideas and opinions by the public. In this manner, as more voices are heard, the truth is expected to come out and accepted, and perhaps in our capacity, we contribute to the betterment of public policies affecting people’s lives.
We do not profess to trumpet what others claim as the will of the people since we are conscious of our limitations and that it may be extremely difficult to assert that what we print in our paper is what the people want. With these limitations notwithstanding, we stand proud that we are ethically conscious of our role of making the voices of the public heard in the bar of public opinion without pretensions that what we print as the public sentiment, every politician must toe the line. We dare admit that what we publish may only be a segment of public opinion since there may be over a million diverse ideas on a particular public issue.
In fulfilling our mission, we subscribe to the idea that diversity of sources competing on a level playing field can ensure an open information market and that markets with large numbers of participants are particularly effective at aggregating information and coping with the limits of perception, thus solving problems related to uncertainty and cognitive limits (Claudio Lombardi, The Illusion of a “Marketplace of Ideas” and the Right to Truth, https://bit.ly/3jfiY5X).
Despite our few years of existence, we always present ourselves as the better option regarding quality and affordable rates for our advertisers. Recently, there was an attempt to ridicule us in a top-rated TV show that hears complaints from the public because we offered the lowest alternative. But this has eventually fizzled out because we remain true to our mission. Since when has it become an offense to provide the lowest bid in publishing material that the public needs to be informed? What is essential is public service, and that to us is the greatest reward.
As the Bohol Tribune will soon converge with its counterpart in the airwaves, we assure you, readers and listeners, that we will forever protect the free market of ideas and even encourage more participants in this noble mission. After all, to our minds, to assert leadership, superiority, and self-righteousness is an admission of insecurity and lack of innovation.