I remember when I was studying in the US and Fox News would always say they are giving fair and balanced news in a “no spin zone.” Of course I did not believe for a moment that Fox provides neutral coverage. Every television station has a bias, its just funny how they all like to argue that they have no bias whatsoever (this is the reason why I love the Economist, they are biased and they let you know their bias).
Today the Online Citizen has greatly disappointed my hopes for them to be far more objective than most other political blog sites. Their headlines screamed:
TOC Exclusive - MP instructs TC Manager after meeting Minister: “We will NOT disclose any further details” on TC Investments
Which of course is a direct quote from an email that had mistakenly ended up with one of their contributors.
However the full quote is:
Further to this, at the meeting with Minister yesterday it was decided that we will NOT disclose any further details beyond what we have already uploaded on-line and will be publishing in our Vibes newsletter.
You can already see that the message points out that there will be further details to be published in the Vibes newsletter, but the headlines seem to indicate that there will be no further disclosure at all since the last one. This is especially appalling considering that Choo Zheng Xi is a legal student; he should know better than to quote texts out of context.
The post goes on to ask which ministers are referred to in the email. Could it be the “anchor” Minister of that GRC. Every GRC has at least one minister in it. It then goes on to insinuate that if it was Mr Mah it would be disturbing. Lots of innuendo and sensationalism.
If you ask me there seems to be a bias going on here, and still TOC wishes to remain under the cover of being unbiased. At least the mainstream media (which gets lambasted so much) is not secretive about its nation-building bias. For that matter other online political sites are in many ways more honest because they do not pretend to be objective when really they have very subjective views.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if there really can be a truly objective blog site when it comes to politics in Singapore.
[For the record my site is subjective. Very subjective to my personal beliefs and tastes.]
Actually, I believe you misinterpreted the statement.
“…we will NOT disclose any further details beyond what we have already uploaded on-line and will be publishing in our Vibes newsletter.”
I believe what the email means is:
1. They have uploaded some details online.
2. They will be publishing these details in the Vibes newsletter.
3. They will not provide any details beyond (1) and (2).
Your interpretation, I believe, is:
1. They have uploaded details online.
2. They will not provide more details because;
3. They will be publishing these extra details in the Vibes newsletter.
This is in line with your own interpretation:
“You can already see that the message points out that there will be further details to be published in the Vibes newsletter..”
Not quite right.
By: jeff on December 7, 2008
at 3:05 pm
Your interpretation is naive. What Choo wanted to show is that the PAP Town Councils have already decided that they will NOT disclose any further details beyond what we have already uploaded on-line and not provide specific answers to specific questions posted by residents and Singaporeans. What remains controversially irresponsible is the scope of the answer on Vibes has already been pre-determined.
By: smallvice585 on December 7, 2008
at 10:44 pm
“Further to this, at the meeting with Minister yesterday it was decided that we will NOT disclose any further details beyond what we have already uploaded on-line and will be publishing in our Vibes newsletter.”
Er, i tend to interpret it similar to the first comment. Tat wat will be publish in Vibes is wat is already given and not new stuff.
I guess we can just wait till wat Vibes shows.
By: Daniel Ling on December 9, 2008
at 3:18 pm
1) Given in a recession, Inflation is still going sky high. Whose fault?
2) Wages of the lower income has been stagnant for years. Whose fault?
3) Infrastructure is not enough to cope with the booming population. Whose fault?
4) Due to the boom in population, bus and train seats removed lead to a higher chance of the elderly and pregnant woman to stand rather than have a chance to sit. Whose fault?
5) Pedestrian walk way becoming cycling tracks for the foreign workers and posing risk to the pedestrian. Did anyone solve this problem?
6) My ladies friends are claiming that they are uncomfortable living near Jurong point or Boon Lay. Why? You go and find out yourself.
There are many more. It is Singaporeans that are going to suffer from the policies that do not take the side effects into serious consideration. If you think TOC is not doing the right thing to help Singaporeans to fight for the simple rights, perhaps you can tell me your plan.
By: tiredman on December 9, 2008
at 9:55 pm
You might say that Zheng Xi leave out the information, but we all should know better that Vibes newsletter is just redundant and irrelevant in revealing what we should know.
Agree with Smallvice,
why should the information online that is already published be different from the of Vibes newsletter ? How many people know that there is such thing as Vibes newsletter ? I assume that newsletter is printed version and therefore very few will even bother to get it and examine it in detail. And you know what. That is what the gov want. People will scrutinize those information available online and therefore the gov will want to happily move on by misrepresent the idea that Vibes newsletter will contain the information (after all, how many people read and know Vibes newsletter ?). Now ask yourself this question ? Why should a newsletter contain these detailed information given that newsletter’s purpose is just abridged information ?
Your answer is as good as mine. All the information the gov want to release is already online, and quoting Vibes Newsletter is just a distraction.
By the way, have you ever lay your hand on Vibes newsletter before ? If so, does that give you the idea the kind of information it will contain ?
By: Malson on December 10, 2008
at 12:58 am