More than it is willing to confirm, the Fourth Estate owned by the ruling elites controls the minds of society writ large — ordinary men on the street, corporate individuals, bureaucrats and politicians, captains of industry, and local and national leaders. Metaphorically, mainstream media herds a viewing universe to a proverbial theater that frames people's minds to think much alike as the data or information they consume come from the same feeding tray.

If we subscribe to BF Skinner's Ideal Society, we would be led to believe that — what we read from newspapers, hear from the radio, and watch on TV — induce across intelligence the same thought patterns that perfectly mimic what tri-media put into the plate. Hence, hardly is there any other contrary belief, unorthodox worldview, or incentive for critical debate on matters too crucial to follow a single train of thought.

Not even social media platforms which old-school pundits mistakenly ascribe as the new wild, "Wild West" can digress much from a corpus of information that newspapers, radio, or TV throw into the wilds. Worse, the narrative that comes out first appears to be the narrative that dies last — a sad pecking order — where perspectives replace truths, accounts replace facts.

In this context, the POGO crime scare is a case in point, at least in explaining how it reached the threshold of anti-POGO sentiment via — "likely media-sponsored accounts of likely scripted-law enforcement reports". Policymakers should bear in mind that then President Duterte himself declared POGOs clean from the start to the end of his term; a vital point of reference worth considering in any congressional inquiry. A few points beg clarification, viz:

One, the naked fact that no city mayor has cried wolf, then the alleged "social costs" or crime surge hailed against POGOs may well be "Platonic". Since "crimes cannot be committed without a witness", local government units or mayors should be the first to complain as they serve as "first responders" against any other threat within their territorial jurisdictions.

Two, no single mayor in all the cities or provincial capitals where POGOs operate has been ever heard of soliciting assistance from law enforcement authorities thus again, rendering the "crimes" associated with POGOs to lack a strong actual and factual basis. Ideally, before it's of compelling concern for the PNP or the DILG secretary; the BI or the DoJ secretary; the BIR or DoF secretary, the mayors themselves, or regulatory authorities must present the total landscape.