February 23, 2013
Politicians lose out on votes, journalists
lose out on credibility, and the rakyat loses out on information. In the
end, we’re all losers in this toxic game.
Have
you ever felt like doing a karate chop on your television when watching
Buletin Utama? Or suffered high blood pressure just after glimpsing the
front page of Utusan? Or choked on your morning coffee when surfing
Malaysia Chronicle?
Last night, my apolitical sister told me she actually felt like
puking when watching Buletin Utama. Apparently, they were reporting how a
prominent PAS leader likened recipients of the Bantuan Rakyat 1
Malaysia (BR1M) vouchers to animals.
“What rubbish! As if Nik Aziz would be stupid enough to say such a thing!” cried my usually mild sister.
“Obviously a spin,” I agreed automatically, rolling my eyes. Typical Buletin Utama, feeding lies to the masses, I thought.
But then my journalistic instincts, on a brief reprieve after failing
to get analysts’ responses for my article for the day, kicked in.
What if it isn’t spin? I mulled. What if this time it’s actually
true, bona fide news, and I’m dismissing it, before even verifying if
the report is true, because I know TV3 is biased?
And therein lies the irony of the biased media. What blatantly biased
news agencies don’t get is that the more they hit out on the other
side, the more sympathy people feel towards the “victims”. It’s reverse
psychology 101.
Take for example BN-controlled media like Utusan, TV3, NST. Every
time they give the opposition bad coverage, most of us from the middle
ground automatically assume its spin or, at the very least, not telling
the whole story. Immediately, the opposition become martyrs in our eyes –
the underdogs that we should root for.
And the same applies for pro-opposition news portals like Malaysia
Chronicle, and even, to a certain extent, FMT. Honestly, another sister
of mine, who is absolutely determined to vote for the opposition in the
coming general election, actually shook her head and sighed “poor Najib”
when reading the article ‘PM missed a beat on drummer ad’ on FMT.
As for me, every time Malaysiakini/FMT/Malaysia Chronicle columnists
wax lyricals about what a “failure” our prime minister Najib Tun Razak
is, I can’t help but sympathise with him and feel like reminding the
world that ‘hey, if it weren’t for BN, we’d still be an agricultural
society.
Blatantly biased
But then I pick up a copy of NST and feel nauseous at the sight of
the bum-kissing headlines plastered above Najib’s face, and the cycle of
sympathy-hate continues…
It’s just really ironic, because these news companies, journalists
and columnists are bending over backwards to please their political
masters, yet they are inadvertently doing these people a disfavour.
Because while these news companies can keep the party’s staunch
supporters feverishly happy with their one-sided, sugar coated,
liberally-censored news, the politicians are definitely not winning any
new fans.
And that’s a huge goldmine they’re missing out on. According to a
survey by Yayasan Ehwal Siswa in two public universities, more than 50%
of the 2,000 students interviewed were fence-sitters when it came to
deciding which party they would support for in both parliamentary and
state seats.
So what’s the solution? Obviously not blatantly biased news media
that censors any unflattering reports – because then the middle ground
will just see this as a propaganda machine akin to Harry Potter’s The
Daily Prophet.
No, the only solution that works out for all politicians, journalists
and the rakyat is to get rid of political intervention in the media.
Exorcise the bias. Go back to fair and balanced reporting. Stay loyal
only to the facts.
I feel like taking our BN leaders by the shoulders and telling them
“if you think that you’re doing the right thing, then let the media
freely report everything you’re doing. Let the media provide the rakyat
with all the facts so that they can conclude for themselves that, yes,
you’re doing the right thing.”
The end result of a free and fair media is that once it gains the
rakyat’s trust, every time it reports on a politician messing up or
doing a good thing, we the rakyat can accept it as facts to take into
consideration when voting, rather than mere progaganda or lies. Dudes,
it’s a win-win solution!
So please, no more spinning gasing headlines like “Najib wins over
crowd in Penang” or “What a Joker! Adnan sure of clean sweep seats for
BN in Pahang” and get back to reporting plain facts.
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