the(new)mediaslut

With ITU TelecomAsia on in Bangkok, Smartbrain wonders if any of his journalist friends were at the Mob last night. More importantly, given the latest round of carnage, if any were injured and will the violence and bloodshed affect their reporting.

If anything, getting dozens of IT and Telco journalist on the spot would help the world see the events for what it is, rather than through the views of a select few who seem to still think that the British Empire exists.

Smartbrain is often irked at reporters who abuse the trust placed in themselves and their organisations and engage in misleading the public with their own agenda in what should be factual reporting.

Take these two articles, one by the BBC and the other by Time.

Is Jabba, sorry, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a proxy, a puppet or a nominee for Thaksin Shinawatra?

The BBC has repeatedly said:

Protesters say the government is a front for the exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Time says:

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej — who is closely allied with the former PM and once declared himself Thaksin’s “nominee”

Now, obviously they cannot both be right. Either Samak did not did not campaign as Thaksin’s proxy. He did. Time remembered it. But the BBC did not. Or maybe they both are right.

The way the BBC article is written implies that the Mob is accusing Samak of being a puppet but that Samak himself is not a puppet, or at least has not been proved one way or the other. Implicitly.

It conveniently omits the fact - and it is a fact - that Samak himself made that claim during the election.

But it is misleading. Smartbrain has written to the BBC to tell them of this and other repeated errors by its correspondent but to no avail.

The BBC also writes:

They rejected last December’s election victory by the pro-Thaksin People’s Power Party (PPP), arguing it was achieved by vote-buying (the impartial Election Commission contradicts this view).

Yet the Nation also says”

The Supreme Court yesterday delivered a red card to People Power Party (PPP) deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyapairat, paving the way for the Election Commission (EC) to start building up a case to dissolve the party.

The Election Commission has supported, albeit after lots of committee and sub-committee meetings, the view and has red-carded the PPP’s Yongyuth “Refrigerator” Tiyapairat in a move that is likely to end in the party being disbanded. The constutution says that if a member of a party’s executive board condones a party member in committing electoral fraud, the party is to be disbanded and the party dissolved. Yongyuth is a member of the party’s board and thus knows what he was doing. It was the EC that put the case to the court in the first place.

The BBC could have said that “the EC partially supports this view”, or, “the EC initially rejected this view but is now moving to dissolve the party for electoral fraud.” But to say that the EC contradicts this view full stop is at best sloppy reporting reading only government news sources or at worst a lie, distorting the truth.

The question is why.

Why is the BBC misleading British opinion and painting a better picture of Thaksin Shinawatra’s allies than is the case. Smartbrain does not like Thaksin, but would never lie to attack him. Lying only would damage the reputation of the news organisation, the reporter and in the long run would only hurt the person they are trying to assist.

Why, BBC? Why? Is the image of Thaksin the elected saviour of Thailand against a traditional, backward backdrop too alluring for you to see things objectively any more?