Last week, the news media put on a drama lacking in humanity and filled with malicious accusations against innocent people. Criticizing the first family's housekeeper, Lo Shih Li-yun (
It is disappointing that the news media failed to use the incident to improve fairness and transparency. Instead it has become an ideological struggle, with the media discarding the principle of fairness as well as professional reporting standards.
The trouble started with a disclosure by Apple Daily outlet that Lo had a chauffeur assigned to the first family drive her on personal business and even ordered him to clean her house. A few pro-China newspapers, long known for their ideological opposition to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, reacted like sharks sensing blood. Without further investigation, they accused the first family of abusing its power. The broadcast media, lazy and superficial as always, followed suit, treating the story as if the president were accepting bribes.
If we take a closer look at Lo's so-called "abuses" offered by these publications, we discover that the chauffeur had merely driven her around, and that he subsequently went to her house to water plants and cut the grass. Under the law and the precedents set by former first families, assigned staff have always driven people responsible for looking after the first lady, including nurses, doctors and cooks. This driver had known Lo for years, and the two were on good terms. It is not unusual for friends to help each other out, and at the time Lo had hurt her arm. It has also been shown that any help he gave her outside of actual working hours was purely voluntary. Clearly, this has nothing to do with abuse of position.
Photographs taken from a distance do not constitute evidence, and the sensationalist media coverage has merely distorted the issue. These photos cannot even be used to prove wrongdoing on Lo's part, much less corruption. On the contrary, the subsequent publication of pictures of and personal details about the driver's children and other parties unrelated to the case, may contravene laws protecting children. If there has been any illegality, it has been on the part of the media. But there have been no apologies forthcoming from these TV shows or newspapers.
Moreover, these media outlets have failed to look back on their own pasts, when they saw but failed to report the abuses of authority that took place in the president's official residence during the regimes of Chiang Kai-shek (
We support the monitoring of power and the denunciation of illegal actions. We also support the role of the media in taking the initiative to seek out and criticize wrongdoing. But in the current case, which in no way affects the public interest and in which there was no illegal behavior, the only thing worth working toward is the creation of a legal framework for the staff assigned to the first family.
At the same time, we should also reassess the large entourages provided for the wives of the two Chiangs. If the media want to find fault with people like Lo, then they should not forget to look at the special privileges provided under the former authoritarian regimes.
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