Soft-core porn on Pepsi cans? Jon Benda says Guess I'll have to stop drinking Pepsi for a while... The Levitator has two excellent translations up, one asking Is The KMT An Underground Party? Translation of ... while the other wants to know Does Taiwan really have press freedom? This is ... ESWN translates a half-assed apology defending the media's behavior in case of pitcher Wang of the Yankees. nostalgiaphile takes a sharp-eyed look at Confucianism in China in China's Confucian Confusions and More on Confucian Nostalgia
[Taiwan]
I don't think that that is a half-assed apology. The line:
ReplyDelete"If tabloid journalism is wrong, then should you keep reading it?"
is spot on. We keep criticizing the Taiwan media for not holding to standards that the society itself doesn't meet. It's like blaming the prostitutes instead of blaming their customers.
That's a cop-out. The media isn't absolved of its responsibility just because a segment of the public likes reading tabloids.
ReplyDeleteMichael
I was going to comment on the same quote as Karl, but from pretty much the opposite POV.
ReplyDeleteAs an analogy, let's say you go to a grocery store looking for some nutritious food, but the manufacturers of the item you buy include tiny amounts of heroin without telling you, adding more heroin and raising the price over time. When you can't stop buying the product and consuming it, despite the fact that it makes you sick, whose fault it that?
People buy newspapers because they're looking for "news." Yet, even the newspapers that give us a good chunk of what we're looking for will all include some "addictive" items that contain exactly zero "news."
We think of newspapers as existing in the role of "guardians," despite reality often demonstrating otherwise. Without a doubt, the general public needs to wise up to this, but don't blame the poor, weak "addict" for being taken advantage of by the rich, powerful "pusher."
Can you say "Poison Apple"?
Tim Maddog
But surely neither is the public absolved of its responsibility just because the media keeps pandering.
ReplyDeleteHere's one for you Karl.
ReplyDelete"If smoking is wrong (bad for you), then should you keep smoking?"
It's like blaming the tobacco industry instead of blaming the consumers.
Does the blame have to lie only on one side?
"Does the blame have to lie only on one side?"
ReplyDeleteI thought that was my point- Responsibility falls on both sides. It is too simplistic to blame this all on the media when at least half the problem lies with those who consume the media product.
Isnt it a fire hazard to be barbecuing ribs by contructing a fire pit right on grass with no proper enclosure around the fire? I think you've become very "Taiwanese" yourself!! Kind of in the same boat as selling exposed food right along an exhaust-spewing traffic roadway, etc. which I have often seen on Taiwanese streets.
ReplyDelete:)