Manny Pacquiao: A Victim of Media Twisting

Earlier this week, Manny Pacquiao gave an interview to Granville Ampong, a freelance writer who writes columns for Examiner.com. During this interview, Pacquiao supposedly gave quotes that referred to homosexuals as abominations and read off verses from Leviticus.

When Ampong's article was released, the whole world took it as Pacquiao slamming the homosexual community in the worst way possible. Every news outlet picked up on this, and has continued to make things worse by adding on as much as they could to draw in more people.

By the end of the day, Pacquiao was looked at as one of the most detestable people in the world. L.A. Mall supposedly banned Pacquiao for his extreme opposition to same-sex marriage and many people were calling out to Nike to stop endorsing Pacquiao.

All of this stemmed from the article that Ampong wrote, and sadly, it appears that Pacquiao is just another victim to the harsh twisting of the media.

Ryan Songalia, an established boxing journalist, made some very astute observations about the whole Pacquiao fiasco by referring to the original interview. Upon doing so, he was able to establish that people were blowing everything out of proportion.

The word abomination in the original article, which can be read here, was never put in quotation marks. This meant that this was never a direct quote from Pacquiao himself and instead, more of an editorial from Ampong.

Next, Ampong never said that Pacquiao cited Leviticus himself, and the way he wrote it out was a little ambiguous, which probably lead to many people thinking Pacquiao cited it himself. 

As the Pacquiao hate train begins to pick up, the author himself came out and said that he is at fault for all of the criticism that Pacquiao is receiving.

He wrote an article for the Examiner, which can be read here, explaining his actions and showing how words that he wrote were taken out of context. He even says himself that Pacquiao himself never said any of that, and condemns other media outlets for making his words, Pacquiao's.

So, while the author came out and admitted it was his fault, it may be too late as the damage is already done. Many media outlets erupted in labeling Pacquiao a homophobic anti-gay individual.

This just goes to show how sometimes the media can take one statement and twist and turn it into whatever they want.