Monday, October 23, 2006

And this is our business how exactly?

I opened yesterday's Sunday Times to page 3 and 4 and I was appalled by the 2 page spread on Ronald Susilo and Li Jiawei's relationship, which was "hit[ting] the rocks". The citation by the Straits Times was "Media reports surfaced last week hinting that all is not well between Indonesian-born Susilo and China-born Li." Of course, being one of the two media conglomerates in Singapore that would POSSIBLY care about this, this would mean that the Straits Times was citing itself. (Anyone else see a problem with that?)

Aside from the excellent reporting (which takes not so much a page as in the whole volume [with cliff notes] from The New Paper) one also wonders this: How is a private relationship between two people (albeit sports stars) any of the business of the Straits Times and any of its readers? And why should it warrant 3rd and 4th page billing?

I mean are we so starved for news that Ronald and Jiawei warrant such a long (badly written) article that is based on heresay hearsay and whatnot? Couldn't the Straits Times have crammed in two more car advertisements? And if they couldn't hold back the diarrhea of bad reporting, then couldn't they have pushed it behind "Guilty! - the sentencing of the Singaporean that killed his friend's wife" or "North Korea wants to escalate crisis"? I mean, one's a matter of national importance only if there's a mass suicide if Susilo and Jiawei break up and the other's just about some country that wants to blow the world to hell in a handbasket. I wonder which one people should care about...And I wonder which one they really care about.

Because it's obvious that The Straits Times stopped distinguishing between the two a loooong time ago.

posted by Packrat at 11:46 am

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I share the same sentiments. Seriously, I found the article totally uncalled for because I don’t really give a hoot about whether their relationship is on the rocks or in quick sand.

Still, it is important to note that it’s after all the weekend and the paper you are reading is named “thesundaytimes” unlike “THE STRAITS TIMES” we read from Mondays to Saturdays. We can’t blame the national papers for giving serious Singaporeans lighter reading material to brighten up our Sundays, can we? =)

PS: You can kill me for this, but I have heard of heresy and hearsay. As for heresay…Sorry, my bad.

Mon Oct 23, 06:24:00 pm 2006  
Blogger Packrat said...

It's heresay when the author's motor movements controlling his fingers gets wires crossed with the eyes that are vetting on the fly and the brain that ceased functioning at 2am last night. :)

Re: Your second point. Actually I tend to ignore the Sunday Times precisely because it takes on the facade of non-serious reporting. But even that has a limit. And I think that this just abour crossed the line like a Pakistani worker who's looking for a better life.

Mon Oct 23, 11:00:00 pm 2006  

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