Media bias is inevitable
The National Communications Commission (NCC) announced on Wednesday last week that CTiTV News’ broadcast license would be revoked. All seven NCC regulators rejected the license renewal for CTiTV’s news channel. The news outlet has been accused of disseminating “fake news,” biased reports, disinformation, and being blatantly pro-China in its views and reporting.
To be sure this last point is not popular in Taiwan nowadays.
There have apparently been many complaints against CTiTV News from the public, but one might ask how many of those complaints came from the public at large, and how many from biased politicians.
It should be understood that a news outlet expressing views slanted in one political direction or another is not a truly valid reason for grief or criticism. In Taiwan just mentioning China in a news report would yield condemnation and protest from many citizens.
In terms of media bias, CTiTV News might be guilty of such transgressions, but the truth is that virtually all media outlets are often lopsidedly biased in their stance and reporting. Without question this can be said about any number of media organizations in Taiwan. Who after all would not say this about the pro-Taiwan-independence Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper?
The Taipei Times’ own bias is clear enough, but the paper tends to keep its cards close to its chest.
It has been reported that 20 politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party had investments in the operations of 35 pro-DPP cable television systems. That says a lot about just how many television systems in Taiwan are biased in this direction.
To be sure the same can be said of the US. CNN, unashamedly anti-US President Donald Trump, could not be much worse in terms of biased reporting and views. The media outlet makes no secret of, nor any effort to hide, its preferences. I am not sure about the accusations of “fake news” against CNN, but the bias remains.
Let us not even talk about pro-Trump Fox News, a media organization notorious for its bigoted views and reporting. Again, such media bias is simply a fact of life in the industry. What media organization worth its name would not want to stake out strong opinions and views in one political direction or another?
Media professionals are always keen to avoid any such labels, but who can doubt the truth about the media outlets mentioned above? (CNN’s Jake Tapper argues vociferously with Republican lawmakers virtually every week.) This truth remains in such two-party systems as the US and Taiwan: All media outlets are biased one way or another.
Freedom of expression runs in many different directions, and some of these might not be very comfortable, but that does not change the essential foundation and rules of what free democracy is all about — that is, a free press.
Make no mistake, Trump and his minions might make the worst noise and outlandish claims in these respects, but they have never shut down a media organization that I know of. This puts the NCC’s move in a very dark light.
Yes, CTiTV News might lack effective internal control mechanisms, but what exactly does this mean and indicate? To what extent should media “control” itself at all, and from there, to what extent is the government going to step in and do the controlling via censorship and various restrictions to freedom of the press? Not many committed citizens desire this.
It is fair to ask whether being pro-one thing or another is a valid reason for discontinuing any news outlet’s right to report news. This might be the most important lesson we are on the verge of relearning during all of this.
David Pendery
Taipei
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