According to the Los Angeles Times report, Yu and Chiou quickly published retractions in the Chinese-language press both here and in Hong Kong. However, they insisted that the apologies had nothing to do with "political pressure."
And check this. The report then tells the bizarre tale of how the Taiwanese jewelry association asked TVBS to issue a retraction. Everyone's favorite news-creating station then ran a follow-up report including a "clarification" from the two jewelers in question.
Yes, after you've picked yourself up off the floor, you did hear correctly. TVBS ran a "clarification" on a "factually untrue" broadcast. Let's hope they don't make a habit of it, as there aren't enough hours in the day.
I've been around a long time, but I never realized the Taiwan jewelry association was such an influential organization. Anyone that can force TVBS to admit to telling untruths must have gonads bigger than Taipei's small giant egg (
Meanwhile, back in bandit country, the "Great Firewall of China" sprang into action, with all searches for "Wen's wife" and "jewelry" on China's Yahoo and Google directing Chinese netizens to hastily photoshopped pictures of Zhang donating said earrings to a poor Tibetan market stallholder in the name of ethnic harmony (actually, I made this bit up but it can't be too far from the truth).
But the biggest mystery in all of this is where our pals in the pro-unification print media were on this story. One would have thought they'd have been all over this like a rash. After all, it was the perfect chance to extol the glory of the "motherland" and its economic development and show that the wives of top-ranking communist officials are doing more than the Taiwanese government to help our economy.
It could also have given Prez A-bian (陳水扁) and Prem Wen some common ground on which to kick-start cross-strait negotiations.
Big Red may have been successful in cowing the likes of TVBS and other self-serving organizations, forcing them to renege on their principles in their pursuit of wealth (the growing list includes the US, Russia, France, the UK, every other member of the UN bar our "impoverished" allies, the WHO and the International Organization for Animal Health to name just a few) -- but not I. Not Johnny Neihu.
I will shout it from the rooftops of Neihu Towers until I'm blue in the face (or until an undercover Chinese sniper gets me), because I have no business interests behind the Bamboo Curtain to compromise.
You see, for reasons I can't explain, my fan base in China doesn't seem to be expanding all that fast.
Heard or read something particularly objectionable about Taiwan? Johnny wants to know: dearjohnny@taipeitimes.com is the place to reach me, with "Dear Johnny" in the subject line.
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