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Reporters take fall for bosses: critics

A demonstrator holds two ducks outside TVBS headquarters in Taipei yesterday to protest the station's fraudulent report last December that restaurants in southern Taiwan had used tar to remove feathers from ducks. PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

Former cable TV station TVBS general manager Lee Tao (李濤) will likely become the station's next vice chairman or retire on a golden parachute after stepping down as general manager on Monday over the recent gangster video flap, while the two reporters who produced the footage -- now unemployed -- will deal with the legal fallout on their own, media representatives said.

The critics made the remarks at a press conference yesterday hosted by the Association of Taiwan Journalists, a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to protecting the labor rights of its members.

TVBS touched off a media maelstrom last month by broadcasting what it originally said was an anonymous video of a gun-toting Taichung gangster threatening to kill his estranged underworld boss. The station later admitted the footage had been shot by its own reporter, sparking a public outcry against the station's journalistic standards as the National Communications Commission (NCC) slapped a NT$1 million (US$30,200) fine on the station and ordered Lee to resign.

The station subsequently fired Nantou reporter Shi Chen-kang (史鎮康), who shot the footage, and Shi's superior, Chang Yu-kun (張裕坤), after news surfaced that Shi had filmed the video. TVBS claimed that the reporter had tricked senior management by falsely claiming that the tape had been made by the gangster and sent to him.

Critics, however, said yesterday that the buck stopped with senior officials at TVBS, who they alleged are loath to help Shi and Chang deal with the legal consequences of broadcasting the footage.

"Frontline reporters often lack the time and resources to sift out inappropriate content -- that's what editors are for," said Kuan Chung-hsiang (管中祥), chairman of Media Watch, an NGO promoting media ethics.

"Lee Tao claimed he didn't know where the footage came from after the flap started," he said.

"Which is worse: his knowing or not knowing of the video's origins before it hit the airwaves? Doesn't that comment, in itself, show how irresponsible senior management at TVBS is?" he asked.

Conference panelists -- including several journalism professors and reporters -- mostly expressed support for Shi and Chang, saying that enormous pressure from editors on frontline reporters to get "the scoop" was to blame for the flap.

When media scandals sometimes emerge, they added, low-level reporters are usually the ones who have to bear the brunt of public blame for their bosses' poor editorial judgment. Media heavyweights like Lee, on the other hand, are both legally and financially shielded from the consequences of their own incompetence or neglect.

"Basically, we're there to help our bosses wipe their asses when things get shitty," said Lin Chao-yi (林朝億), a journalist at Radio Taiwan International.
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