Everyone's getting hysterical about that TVBS co-production starring a self-declared hitman with toy guns, so it falls to me to say: Don't be distracted. There are deeper problems at play, not the least those afflicting many of TVBS' accusers.
One of them is Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who drools every time he gets a chance to plug greater government control of the media. And anyone who appeals for retribution from the National Miscommunications Commission -- an unconstitutional agency -- deserves a Dutch oven in a broken-down elevator. That pretty much covers everybody who broke a sweat over a couple of hacks plying their sleazy trade in gorgeous Taichung.
Speaking of gorgeous, did you know that Taiwan has an indigenous parrot? Her name is Connie Lin (林育卉), the head of a media watchdog called the Broadcasting Development Fund, and of late she has taken to parroting less clued-up parts of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). So expect a sermon on the evils of TVBS from her any day now.
On Tuesday, Lin parroted some DPP rabble-rousing legislators and attacked CNN and The Associated Press (AP) over an article and TV report that dusted off Beijing's labels for Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) -- to wit, "scum of the nation" and "insane." Squawk.
Lin and a few other media watchdog types had gathered at a Broadcasting Development Fund gabfest, safe in the knowledge that they were among friends. Lin said Western news agencies were hiring more and more pro-Beijing Chinese journalists, but she had no evidence. Another browbeater, Formosa Television news manager Paul Tsai (蔡滄波), said AP and CNN were barbaric, which summed up the stupidity on show.
Huff and puff all you like, people. But can you explain why it has taken you, like your DPP friends, years and years to identify that there is a problem with the international media? And then could you explain why you have picked the least offensive examples of this problem to put on your song and dance?
Taipei Times editorials, blogocrats and yours truly have been sifting through this stuff for a long time. Lin must have no knowledge of these efforts -- probably because her English is not so good. Which makes me wonder if she can distinguish out-and-out bias from the trappings that come with ordinary wire write-ups stuck in a pattern of "China says" and "renegade province."
The plain truth is there are far worse instances of foreign correspondence that misrepresents Taiwan. None was picked up by the Broadcasting Development Fund, which suggests its staff rely on political triggers to identify targets. If so, it can't be taken very seriously (let's not mention its historically close ties to the Government Information Office, which commissions research from it).
Calling yourself a media watchdog is easy. I dare to do so, though I don't have the budget of the Broadcasting Development Fund, which means I meander across topics as they interest me. And if some dumb-ass from the pan-green camp gets up and says something dumb from out of his ass, then I call it just the same as if it came from the pan-blue camp.
The problem with Lin and her team is they make only token efforts to be and appear "neutral," which is essential for credibility. Instead, they seem to suffer from Pavlovian responses to political mischief. Ring a pan-blue bell and they salivate all over their microphones.
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