"Media Slaves" Bow to Their Masters

By Lu Shih-hsiang 盧世祥, translated by Anna Stiggelbout

DURING THE AUTHORITARIAN era, the news media in Taiwan had to fawn on the party-state authorities. Together with educational institutions, the media had to do the dirty work of brainwashing the public to its political ends. To this day many Taiwanese still haven't realized this.

After media censorship was abolished 20 years ago, some were unable to function under normal ethical journalistic standards. They were unable to deal with the true state of affairs and, lost in the democratic era, they continued to mislead the public.

Some politicians allow their public personas to be led by the media and consequently they lose touch with reality. As a result, they are dismissed by the public. These victims of the abnormal media climate could be described as "media slaves."

This kind of behavior is frequently apparent in the latest election race.

In normal democracies, the media report the truth, explain the news, determine which issues are important and reflect public opinion. Politicians in such an environment cannot easily ignore the media.

In Taiwan, however, apart from a few exceptions, the media often publish untrue reports, run subjective commentary and distort public opinion with skewed opinion polls. For example, if media opinion polls were to be believed, the winner of the Kaohsiung mayoral election in December 2006 would have been Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英), not Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Chu (陳菊). The only exception was the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper).

In the current media environment, politicians looking to the media for guidance on how to govern the country will suffer the political consequences. If they believe everything they see in the media, the damage will be even greater.

It is worth noting that political intervention by Taiwan's media has been increasing in recent years. In addition to the politicization of all news, all criticism is based on political position and ideology. The result is a polarization of media outlets that protect those they favor and working against those they don't. Thus, the Taiwanese media have created a number of media darlings and an even greater number of "media slaves." However, because media standards are seriously slanted, those who are made to look good by the media have no reason to congratulate themselves, and those attacked by them could feel persecuted. Unfortunately, few people are able to see through these media tricks.

Fame and glory are often hard to resist. Even political leaders who have held high office, prominent individuals in the private sector and academics who consider themselves above political wrangling can't avoid falling into this self-delusional trap.

Because Taiwanese media remain under the control of proponents of "one China," many media darlings are pan-blue politicians.

If they suit the media's tastes, pro-localization politicians can also win their favor. But for them, it is still as Mencius (孟子) said: Those whom Zhao Meng (趙孟) promote, he can also demote. If the media do not profit from favoring a certain politician, their halo can be removed overnight, leaving a media slave with nothing.

There are many of these media slaves in the pan-green camp. The weakness they have in common is a tendency to make sensational statements. In their competition for media attention, they often end up targeting their own camp to gain a reputation as reformers while labeling those of other opinions reactionaries or corrupt. Examples in recent years include former DPP chairmen Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) and Shih Ming-teh (施明德), former DPP legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) and some of the members of the party's New Tide faction. All were influenced by the blue-leaning media.

These people were often given a lot of exposure and were made to look good by certain media outlets, but their political possibilities kept decreasing.

Some pro-green academics who sympathized with the red-clad anti-corruption protesters that shook up Taiwan in 2006 also belonged to this group. Some fell into the trap of mistaking the lies of certain media for the truth and empty reputation for reality.

These media, however, have left fact and public opinion behind.

Those who are manipulated by the media or try to use them don't have a grip on what the public wants and will continue to sink ever lower, together with the media.

Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.