By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR

GMA-7 appears to have developed some fondness for issues Pangasinan and Dagupan City of late. For those in the know, the reason, or cause, should be simple. But those who are clueless, like some trike driver- friends of ours, think those Imbestigador and other exposes are products of spontaneous, accidental sally-forths of the I-team in any territory in the countryside, you know, like just-passing-by-and-saw-or-heard-of-these kind of things.

It is no accident that GMA-7 has got local veteran newshounds and newshens plus a host of roaming tipsters nestled in its top-rating radio station based here, DZSD-Super Radyo. While Mike Enriquez’s team does have its own unconventional ways of probing a theme or topic, a whole lot of useful info gets to them thru local hands, that’s a, uh, given.. If jueteng and prostitution became the latest “flavor” of Imbestigador as you might have seen on TV last Saturday, you can be sure the same “cooking recipe” is not far off in the newsboards and assignments of S-Radyo staff led by our amigo, Orly P. Navarro. Nothing really beats a radio-television combination for maximum punch, and GMA has shown it’s ready and willing to use it.

Television as a medium though, has a distinct edge over the radio “counterpart”. No, we don’t mean Mike’s and Orly’s own brand of unorthodox personality and presentation; truth to tell, both guys have a basic similarity—they’re funnily irreverent.

We mean television, a “cruel medium”, it is often said, brings to the fore facial expressions and body languages of news subjects that immediately signals to the audience in homes and offices whether the guy’s lying thru his teeth or not. Police action, and statements, for example, get to be scrutinized by everyone watching at homes and at the end of the segment or footage, the household “judgment” is handed down – “guilty” or “not guilty.” You can only marvel how technology has been able to revolutionize “audience participation” in this modern age.

A wag beside us, as we write this, says he’d rather we use the more upbeat “Deal … or No Deal.” .