MANILA — The clan accused of orchestrating the Philippines' worst political massacre — also considered the single worst killing of journalists on record — plotted the attack over a family dinner, a longtime housekeeper testified Wednesday at the start of a long-delayed trial here.
"They are a group of assassins that is made up of ex-policemen and serving officers," says Marcelo Rezende, an investigative journalist and presenter of Record TV's prime-time criminal investigative programme.
Mini-bar miniatures are flowing, fragrant candles are flickering on every flat surface in the interest, presumably, of ambience, and a bunch of journalists and record industry extras are waiting, semi-expectantly.
Importantly, their personal accounts are not filtered through the lens of what a third party – a historian, a documentary filmmaker, a journalist – deems worthy of recording.
But given the developments this week on controversies surrounding the president's administration, reporters focused on the Justice Department seizure of journalists' phone records, the I.R.S. targeting of conservative groups and the e-mails about last year's attacks in Benghazi.
During the Bush years, there were several similar reports of DOJ acquisition of journalists' phone records: I'll wager anything that not a single progressive site or prominent Democrat ever defended any of that or offered neutral "explainers" to provide justifying rationale.
The second concerns the secret seizure by the Justice Department of journalists' phone records, and the third the targeting of conservative political groups by the IRS, the country's tax-collection agency.
Just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, lots of journalists have recorded themselves reading the landmark speech.
Nor has it shielded him from gales of criticism recently over Benghazi, I.R.S. scrutiny of Tea Party groups and Justice Department seizures of journalists' phone records.
