Friday, March 09, 2007

ESWN on AP's Use of Beijing Propaganda

ESWN comments on the flap over the AP's use of CCP propaganda as an important component of their story on Annette Lu joining the race for the Presidency in 2008 (original story). ESWN writes:


[022]The "Scum of the Nation" Story (03/09/2007) (UDN via Yahoo! News) Here is the initial official reaction after the AP/CNN story which cited identified persons who called Taiwan vice-president Annette Lu 'insane' and 'scum of the nation' (see Comment 200703#014). The Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union both demanded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government Information Office to cancel the AP reporter Li Min's visa and expel him out of Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government Information that they will do so quickly and the police will ask Li to depart. However, a person involved in diplomacy pointed out that an expulsion may raise international concerns over freedom of press in Taiwan.
The Taipei Times has the complete story on the abrupt about-face. The correspondent, Li Min, was from Hong Kong and his biases were on full display, recovering remarks about Lu made eight years ago and referring to "Beijing's sacred view" that it can annex Taiwan and murder Taiwanese to do so. The AP story also worked in the completely irrelevant tale of the Blue supporter who shot Lu and Chen the day before the 2004 election, setting off the KMT ("the opposition") claim that it was a conspiracy in a single, separate sentence for emphasis. The story wasn't all bad, but the biases of the writer are obvious.

ESWN observes that "identified persons" made the remarks. Who cares? Propaganda is propaganda, whether sources are identified or not. Those remarks should not have been in either the headline or the opening paragraph, where they help shape reader perception of the remainder of the document and of Lu herself. The issue is not even that propaganda was used; the real issue is the way that the international media constantly reaches for Beijing in defining Taiwan. Why didn't the lead paragraph reference Lu's career, a formidable one as an activist, feminist, and politician? Why wasn't a story on a Taiwan person centered on Taiwan? Is that too much to ask?

ESWN then reminds us who the first foreign reporter to be expelled from Taiwan was...

Here is a history lesson. Who was the first foreign correspondent to be expelled from Taiwan? In 1981, there was the shocking case of Carnegie Mellon University assistant professor Chen Wen-chen who was found dead on the campus ground of National Taiwan University. This was an international incident, due to the disagreement between the authorities and the Chen family about the cause of death. Chen's bruised and battered body was discovered on July 2, 1981 on the campus of National Taiwan University after he had been taken away by the Taiwan Garrison General Headquarters on the previous day. The garrison headquarters
initially claimed that Chen had committed suicide because he feared being arrested for crimes, but changed its account the following day, saying that he had died in an accident. Eventually, the Taiwan authorities acceded to the Chen family's demand to have an American forensic doctor come to Taiwan to examine the body.

In her report, Associated Press reporter Tina Chou used the word 'autopsy' instead of 'examination.' The Taiwan Government Information Office believed that the word 'autopsy' damaged the sovereignty and dignity of Taiwan and demanded a written apology. When AP did not respond in a timely manner, the Government Information Office canceled Tina Chou's press license and expelled her from Taiwan. By the way, the head of the Taiwan Information Office at the time was none other than James Soong.
Tina Chou's account of this affair is somewhat different -- the problem was that the authorities claimed that she had filed an "untruthful" report. Because Chen had died during an intelligence investigation, probably after being thrown from a upper story window, the authorities did not want the word "autopsy," with its implication of foul play, used in the story. Chou was the first Taiwanese ever employed as a foreign journalist in Taiwan, also with the AP. Chou describes:

To rationalize the action against me, the government told the Legislative Yuan that my autopsy report was a fabrication by a foreign news agency and living proof that foreign imperialism once again was plotting to manipulate the Republic of China! With TV reporters told to expect and report this address to the Parliament, the official lamented previous imperialistic invasions and interferences in China, vowing to protect Taiwan from further advances.
One of the more ironic and insidious propaganda moves of the anti-Taiwan crowd is to claim that Chen Shui-bian and the current DPP leadership is as bad as the KMT. Here ESWN juxtaposes the tale of Li Min and Tina Chou, as if there was some equivalence. But the differences are key: Tina Chou was an accredited journalist, originally from Taiwan, expelled for telling the truth, and her career in Taiwan was impaired for years afterwards. Li Min was not expelled -- the difference between an authoritarian state and a democracy is this accountability that permits cooler heads to prevail -- and his transgression was abusing his position as a journalist to repeat someone else's propaganda, to paint a tale about Annette Lu. There's no equivalence between individuals who speak truth and individuals who repeat the lies of others. In the final analysis, that Li Min is still in Taiwan is simply further evidence of the vast difference between the pro-Taiwan and the pro-China crowd.

UPDATE: As the TIME blog shows, the international media just don't get it.

6 comments:

Tim Maddog said...

Michael, excellent takedown of Roland's dissembling.

I want to take this chance to remind readers what former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon told me less than a year ago in reply to my "speculati[ons] on the practices of the anti-Taiwan media here" (after admitting that the China Times had paid for her hotel and air fare and only after I asked a second time) [Bold emphasis within is mine]:
- - -
Those memes are largely due to journalistic laziness, rather than some China Times-led conspiracy. Believe me.
- - -

I didn't believe her then, and I don't believe her now -- nor should anyone else -- especially in the light of this recent promulgation of Beijing's ugly nonsense by AP and CNN. Journalis[m]? Laziness? My ass!

Tim Maddog

Michael Turton said...

Actually, someone just related a very interesting anecdote on how the discourse is shaped by Beijing, which I hope to post here later this week.

Michael

Anonymous said...

China power seems bigger and bigger. What do journalistic says might be a part of ture and fact.

So directly...and hurt people

The news won't equal. so that to be called a news.

Anonymous said...

DEAR BLOGGER SIR, you still have it wrong. Lee Min, correct spelling, read the papers, sir, not Li Min, and taipei Times also wrong, calls him Lee Ming, no, cant anybody around there read, LEE MIN is his byline. got it?

the Ap and CNN story issue is not one of pro-China or pro-Taiwan. It is about journalism and how news articles get written, edited, copyedited, headlined and distributed. nobody was trying to be anti-Taiwan, Lee Min, is not anti Taiwan, he is a professional reporter for AP!!!!! get over it. even the AP intl director in NYC said it well: we were just trying to show how the first female pres candidate for Taiwan is not very well liked by China, thus the quotes. that was a good editorial decision. stop the paranoi and anti this and anti that. this entire thing was not about China or Taiwan, it was about newsrooms and reporters and editors. you guys have never been in a newsroon. neither have i. been friends tell me about it in Chicago. get over it. read the TaiPei Times editorial today on Saturday, they even say it was all muich ado about nuttin....get over it and stop the paranoia, you are as bad as the KMT jerks. and the DPP jerks. Sometimes bloggers just blog without thinking. stiick to what you know. i know nuttin....

Michael Turton said...

"we were just trying to show how the first female pres candidate for Taiwan is not very well liked by China, thus the quotes."

Hey no shit. It is clear that you haven't yet caught the issue, and I've given up trying to explain it, because, as you note below:

i know nuttin....

Probably the first intelligent thing you've said.

Michael

Tim Maddog said...

Hey Michael, do you think that the know-nothing "anonymous" is Lee Min himself? (Did I spell that right? Will anon stop screeching?) To anon, perhaps we (myself, Michael, and probably the Taipei Times) were reading his name in Chinese and not relying on anybody's translations. The CNN crap didn't have a byline at all. At least one Chinese-language source I saw had "李明." If you were paying attention, you might have noticed that I put "(ph)" after my own spelling. Taipei Times has it as "李閩" in a Friday article. Do tell, which do you say is the "correct" source to determine the spelling for an English-language context? If you're going by Hanyu pinyin, it'd be "Li Min" (as Michael spelled it), not "Lee." Who is it that's commenting "without thinking"? It's neither me nor Michael.

Now that we've got that important item out of the way, why's anon so goshdarned "paranoid" about this topic?

On that TIME report by Austin Ramzy, the headline reminds me of Ann Coulter's recent remarks about John Edwards, and that last sentence is really scummy. Does Ramzy really think readers can't see the obvious difference between the "declaration-of-fact" nature of CNN's "Taiwan's 'scum of the nation' runs for president" and the straightforward reporting of the Taipei Times' "'Scum of the nation' report sparks Lu's ire"? If he can't see the difference, he shouldn't be a reporter.

Tim Maddog