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Letter: Let's talk media bias

Here is an interesting lesson about Taiwanese newspapers.

The background is this: former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Randy Schriver met with Taiwanese officials and spoke to Taiwanese reporters.

In his briefing he disagreed with the characterization of China's invitations to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to visit China as "flexibility," -- something which the pan-blue media and parties have trumpeted.

Instead, he correctly characterized these moves as "more creative," which, while the Chinese increase the pressure on Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) by using the opposition parties, they also continue to put pressure on Taiwan internationally.

This is not to mention the loving gaze of 800 Chinese ballistic missiles and the pan-blue forces blocking arms purchases.

These new, more creative Chinese tactics then, he asserts, are clever traps from which Taiwan must maneuver carefully. Most importantly, he characterized China as the real trouble-maker -- a phrase given to Taiwan by former US president Bill Clinton and members of his government.

The coverage:

The usually pro-blue China Times, [http://news.chinatimes. com/Chinatimes/newslist/newslist-content/0,3546,110502+112005060400021,00.html ] was quick to make sure that readers know that Schriver is "very friendly to Taiwan," and gave this fair headline: "Schriver: China is the real troublemaker."

The pan-green Taiwan Daily [http://www.taiwandaily.com.tw/index03.php?news_id=44987&datechange=2005-06-04&news_top=c1] ran a story with the headline: "Schriver: Chinese policy towards Taiwan more creative, but from international pressures and threats of invasion one cannot see `flexibility.'"

The pan-green Liberty Times [Editor's note: the Liberty Times is the Taipei Times' sister newspaper.] ran the headline: "Schriver: Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) invitations to Lien and Soong are traps for Taiwan."

In terms of content, all the articles read relatively the same, even the China Times noted that according to Schriver, Bush's "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan comment was genuine.

Now let's turn to the United Daily News [http://udn.com/NEWS/FINANCE/FIN2/2713746.shtml]. It tucked the story deep inside its subsidiary Economic Daily News with a headline that misleadingly read: "Schriver: Taiwan must wisely utilize Beijing's creativity."

If you spend the time to parse the grudging UDN story closely, you pretty much get the main point, which is entirely contrary to the misleading headline. The UDN also strikingly took time to emphasize that Schriver "does not think the KMT and PFP leaders meant to hurt Taiwan" with their tours of China.

Strikingly, it also omitted the "troublemaker" observation. It should be noted that UDN is the Taiwanese strategic partner of the New York Times, and the publisher of that paper happens to be visiting Taiwan.

Liang Hong-ming

Shaker Heights, Ohio
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