Over the years, political talk shows on television have been regarded as a source of social chaos. Political misdeeds and media sensationalism have come to be regarded as two sides of the same coin.
TVBS claims that its 9pm Public Debate show will refrain from ideologically-driven verbal sparring and provide in-depth analyses of major issues. This is indeed a praiseworthy aim. Unfortunately, in reality, the show retains faults that affect its judgement and which can have significant repercussions.
The fierce controversy that has surrounded the program has revealed a malicious tendency: the belief that the media need not bear any responsibility for the opinions it broadcasts. For example, show host Lee Tao (李濤) stated publicly that if only two out of every 10 opinions aired on the show are fact, that would be enough. Then there was another well-known host, a former labor activist, who said that he didn't need proof or evidence to back up his statements, and that he could spout whatever nonsense he wanted to.
It is ironic, therefore, that when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers accused TVBS of being wholly owned by Chinese parties and further, that it had evaded paying taxes, the stat-ion demanded that its accusers back up their accusations with evidence. There are clearly double standards being applied.
It is easy to criticize others but hard to restore a person's reputation once it has been damaged. This is why the media must be especially cautious about human-rights issues. In a society based on human rights and the rule of law, we must accept that some criminals are still at large because the evidence against them proved insufficient for a conviction. This is the price we pay for cherishing democratic principles.
The other question the show raises is the allocation of responsibility. On 9pm Public Debate, participants get emotional and threaten to take each other to court. This sort of behavior precludes any rational discussion. Lee has said that participants should be willing to take responsibility for what they say, but what does this actually imply? For example, retired elementary-school principal Chao Yu-chu (趙玉柱), the father of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son-in-law, recently said he would commit ritual suicide if it could be proved that he visited Thailand last November with former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), who has now been implicated in a major financial scandal. Will his accusers be willing to make a similar vow, and if indeed Chao is proved innocent, will they actually kill themselves?
The DPP has finally lost its patience with 9pm Public Debate. But its response has been in the same vein as the show, with a DPP legislator announcing that if he does not close down TVBS then he will change his family name. If the government really tries to close down TVBS, the public is likely to side with the television station in the name of press freedom. But if TVBS is to use the public as its shield against government attack, it must do one thing first: reveal the truth. The station needs to produce evidence, and before the situation is clear, it should seek to block further allegations.
Since its inception, 9pm Public Debate has claimed to pursue fairness and justice. Common people like me support it completely in tackling public issues. But I believe that it has used the wrong methods for the right end goal. I am a citizen, and all citizens want better-quality media. We do not want a TV program that only spouts nonsense.
Yao Jen-to is an assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology at National Tsing Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY LIN YA-TI
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Twenty-four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers are facing recall votes on Saturday, prompting nearly all KMT officials and lawmakers to rally their supporters over the past weekend, urging them to vote “no” in a bid to retain their seats and preserve the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which had largely kept its distance from the civic recall campaigns, earlier this month instructed its officials and staff to support the recall groups in a final push to protect the nation. The justification for the recalls has increasingly been framed as a “resistance” movement against China and
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
Saturday is the day of the first batch of recall votes primarily targeting lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The scale of the recall drive far outstrips the expectations from when the idea was mooted in January by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘). The mass recall effort is reminiscent of the Sunflower movement protests against the then-KMT government’s non-transparent attempts to push through a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014. That movement, initiated by students, civic groups and non-governmental organizations, included student-led protesters occupying the main legislative chamber for three weeks. The two movements are linked
RSS