Thursday, May 31, 2012

Shoddy Journalism

During a Q&A exchange of the ''Leadership Renewal The Fourth Generation and Beyond" Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum at NUS in April 2007, a second year sociology major was trying to complete his question, "... we are doing absolutely badly and this is exacerbated by the fact that although Singapore is a First World country, it has a Third World wage structure - and this is according to the Straits Times, not from anywhere else. And even Professor Tommy Koh ..."
PM Lee cut him off with : "Do you believe everything you read in the Straits Times?"

Low Thia Khiang has made it clear he doesn't, but he's probably more upset about the political innocents who might be mortified by misleading headlines or picture captions. After all, Francis Seow's book "The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited" is not easily available at the book shelves here.

The newspaper that was once ranked 154th out of 195 in the "2007 Freedom of the Press World Ranking" by "Freedom House" is crying foul. Never mind if a United States diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks once quoted Chua Chin Hon, the Straits Times' U.S. bureau chief, saying that the paper's "editors have all been groomed as pro-government supporters and are careful to ensure that reporting of local events adheres closely to the official line", and that "the government exerts significant pressure on ST editors to ensure that published articles follow the government's line".

Thanks to the exchange of letters in the Forum page we now know that the Secret Squirrel was in direct email communication with the Straits Times, and not any other publication. We also know that they chose the date of publication, which opens up another can of worms - was the timing intended to inflict maximum collateral damage? Low said in the post election conference his party did not have the resources to investigate the matter, but SPH has. All they need to do is to check the mail header, and lots of interesting things can be found, such as the source of posting. If the Tin Pei Ling example is anything to go by, even the law enforcement folks may not have the political will to complete the detective work. Last time we checked, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein do not work in the shitty times.

27 comments:

  1. Magnus Bicker5/31/2012 9:00 AM

    When pap wins a ward, msm coverage of Opposition candidates stops immediately. When pap loses, the msm goes on and on about how the pap candidate is committed & continuing his work in the lost ward.

    ReplyDelete
  2. One thing for sure, the number of people reading st and other local papers and watching media copse news is diminishing at fararri rate !

    Continue this trend, the papers are only fit for collecting dog poos.

    Good greif !

    ReplyDelete
  3. Look at how the housing people celebrate and the victory parade.

    Hv been in pap wards for so long, living in 3 different grc in the past 20 years. never seen any victory parade. Hardly sees my MPs except official events.

    They tend to appear only before ge, more activities only roll out before ge too.

    Even on the 2 rare occasion that we went for meet the people session, we only get to meet he grass root leader not the mp. Not even know that they were there.

    The hougang spirit is real and how I wish we could be there !

    ReplyDelete
  4. At this internet age, I am amazed how ST is still trying to bullshit readers that it is totally independent and has no interest in helping the other side. Come on, the writing is on the wall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ST will neber admit anything bias lah. Then hor 40% of singapore real citizens stop buying newspaper how? Less adbertising $ for their bonus law. Czero have to take bus.

      Delete
  5. The amount of injustice allowed to prevail over the opposition wards is unacceptable. Starting with the appointment of the Grassroots Adviser, what in the world is that?, and to imagine that the Opposition MP needs approval from a losing candidate to carry on improvements to the ward itself. I wonder how the legislations have been so twisted to allow such things to happen.

    Pritam Singh highlighted that FREE upgrading of lifts to every floor for twenty odd blocks has been rejected by the Grass root adviser. I understand politics to be dirty, but not in this way and why the MSM find it not newsworthy. I didnt know until now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Who are the ones fully responsible for all these kind of injustices & unfairness ? And to think they still have the hypocrisy to call for an inclusive society ?

    Are they not ashamed of themselves in the face of the public's wrath and anger ? It will at least augur well for them if start calling themselves hypocrites of the Pariah Arrogant Party ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about Proud Arrogant People?
      or
      Party Against People?

      Delete
    2. So the pledge of One People, One Singapore is a bull?

      Delete
    3. One nation = 1
      One people = 1
      One Singapore = $

      Delete
  7. Reason #1
    For voting for the Pro Alien Party.

    They have many layers of checks & balances to ensure the smooth running of a train system on a small island.

    A millionaire Minister to check up on a millionaire CEO?
    This is in addition to a Board of Directors?
    As well as the Land Transport Authority?

    How many of these folks are members of the Opposition parties?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Transport is a mess. Now they back track on COE.

      Delete
  8. I don't think people read much from the newspapers nowadays. There isn't much quality content or anything worthwhile to read about. Most people just flip over the pages and they're done with the reading within 5 minutes. It has a fact, circulation of those major newspapers is on a declining trend. My office doesn't subscribe for any newspapers. I myself get most of my news online or through some subscribed magazines such as Economist. I don't even bother to read those free newspapers that are given out in the various MRT stations.

    It's a fact, all the local media only serves the government - typical Communist state!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you hang out in coffeeshops or hawker centres on a Saturday, it is very telling. People don't read the news but the classfieds first esp for property and the like! So ST is going on strong because of these ads. Take it away and you may not get the ST.

      Delete
  9. The state-controlled main stream media,ST And Media Corp,had been fxxking the citizens brains for decades. It had already lost the propaganda war to the social media. The Internet has forced them to report fairly but it does not matter anymore as the citizens distrust of the msm is both deep and wide

    ReplyDelete
  10. How do these editors sleep at night?

    Wait, I suppose hugging a picture of the dear leader and reciting his speeches ad nauseum helps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They don`t sleep, too busy looking at job sites to find another job.

      Delete
  11. Warren Fernandez used to write very high-brow bombastic opinion pieces extolling the PAP and the Old man when he was at the ST previously.
    Now as Editor and assuming he wrote that weak and indefensible reply to LTK, you must know he was
    clutching on straws to come up with an excuse

    ReplyDelete
  12. Perhaps 'Freedom House' should consider quoting examples of articles by Straits Times that consistently contribute to its worldclass ranking of 154th.

    I wish there was some kind of individual press award for the most outrageous spin by a journalist. And awards with names like Chemical Ali, LeeConYou, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Have you ever thought about publishing an e-book or guest
    authoring on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the same subjects you
    discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
    I know my readers would appreciate your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an
    e-mail.
    Look into my webpage : forex

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi there, for all time i used to check web site posts here in the early hours in
    the dawn, for the reason that i love to find out more and more.
    Also see my webpage: www.fastloanshub.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hello Everybody,
    My name is Mrs Sharon Sim. I live in Singapore and i am a happy woman today? and i told my self that any lender that rescue my family from our poor situation, i will refer any person that is looking for loan to him, he gave me happiness to me and my family, i was in need of a loan of S$250,000.00 to start my life all over as i am a single mother with 3 kids I met this honest and GOD fearing man loan lender that help me with a loan of S$250,000.00 SG. Dollar, he is a GOD fearing man, if you are in need of loan and you will pay back the loan please contact him tell him that is Mrs Sharon, that refer you to him. contact Dr Purva Pius,via email:(urgentloan22@gmail.com) Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hello Everybody,
    My name is Mrs Sharon Sim. I live in Singapore and i am a happy woman today? and i told my self that any lender that rescue my family from our poor situation, i will refer any person that is looking for loan to him, he gave me happiness to me and my family, i was in need of a loan of S$250,000.00 to start my life all over as i am a single mother with 3 kids I met this honest and GOD fearing man loan lender that help me with a loan of S$250,000.00 SG. Dollar, he is a GOD fearing man, if you are in need of loan and you will pay back the loan please contact him tell him that is Mrs Sharon, that refer you to him. contact Dr Purva Pius,via email:(urgentloan22@gmail.com) Thank you.

    BORROWERS APPLICATION DETAILS


    1. Name Of Applicant in Full:……..
    2. Telephone Numbers:……….
    3. Address and Location:…….
    4. Amount in request………..
    5. Repayment Period:………..
    6. Purpose Of Loan………….
    7. country…………………
    8. phone…………………..
    9. occupation………………
    10.age/sex…………………
    11.Monthly Income…………..
    12.Email……………..

    Regards.
    Managements
    Email Kindly Contact: urgentloan22@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. My name is.Mrs.Anna Daniel. I live in Ukraine i am a happy woman today? i need to use this time to tell all people how i got my loan from this honest and God fearing man loan lender that help me with a loan of $84,000 please contact him. if you also need a loan without any problem he name is Dr Purva Pius email {PurvaPius22@gmail.com} tell him that is Mrs.Anna Daniel that refer you to he contact Email {PurvaPius22@gmail.com}

    ReplyDelete