Dawn vs Xiaxue? Who really cares?
Earlier this morning, I was flipping through the pages of today's Straits Times (ST) and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But when I reached page 5 of the Home section, I cannot help but think to myself: "What the...?!"
What triggered this visceral reaction from me?
Answer: This article -- "Xiaxue won't say sorry to Dawn"
Why?
Well, although I may be expecting too much of the ST but I cannot fathom how a dispute between Dawn Yang and Xiaxue (a.k.a. Miss Wendy Cheng) can be considered as newsworthy by those working at the ST.
I mean, it was perhaps not that bad when the ST published a similar article last Sunday about this dispute between Miss Yang and Miss Cheng; after all, people perhaps prefer lighter news on Sundays. And perhaps it would not be that bad if the ST had published today's article about the dispute in question in the Life section, considering that this section is mainly for lighter news.
However, the ST not only decided to publish today's article in the Home section (guess we should be thankful that they did not place it on the front page) but decided to allocate almost half a page to it (this was the same for the article in last Sunday's ST). Also, for both last Sunday's and today's article, the text was flanked by rather large & prominent pictures of both Miss Yang and Miss Cheng; was this really necessary?
What an abuse, if not waste, of precious column space!
I wonder what first time tourists to Singapore would think about the quality of local newspapers (and perhaps, by inference, the quality of Singaporeans) if they bought a copy of today's ST, which is perhaps the default national broadsheet since it's the largest circulating English newspaper in Singapore, and saw the article about the dispute between Miss Cheng and Miss Yang on page 5 of the Home section?
Sigh...
And as a parting shot (and perhaps allowing the conspiracy theorist in me to emerge), I wonder if perhaps this coverage of the dispute between Miss Yang and Miss Cheng is a move, within a larger strategy, to discredit the maturity and credibility of the local blogging community, thereby making people doubtful of its ability to self-regulate?
Dawn vs Xiaxue? Who really cares? Well, I don't...
What triggered this visceral reaction from me?
Answer: This article -- "Xiaxue won't say sorry to Dawn"
Why?
Well, although I may be expecting too much of the ST but I cannot fathom how a dispute between Dawn Yang and Xiaxue (a.k.a. Miss Wendy Cheng) can be considered as newsworthy by those working at the ST.
I mean, it was perhaps not that bad when the ST published a similar article last Sunday about this dispute between Miss Yang and Miss Cheng; after all, people perhaps prefer lighter news on Sundays. And perhaps it would not be that bad if the ST had published today's article about the dispute in question in the Life section, considering that this section is mainly for lighter news.
However, the ST not only decided to publish today's article in the Home section (guess we should be thankful that they did not place it on the front page) but decided to allocate almost half a page to it (this was the same for the article in last Sunday's ST). Also, for both last Sunday's and today's article, the text was flanked by rather large & prominent pictures of both Miss Yang and Miss Cheng; was this really necessary?
What an abuse, if not waste, of precious column space!
I wonder what first time tourists to Singapore would think about the quality of local newspapers (and perhaps, by inference, the quality of Singaporeans) if they bought a copy of today's ST, which is perhaps the default national broadsheet since it's the largest circulating English newspaper in Singapore, and saw the article about the dispute between Miss Cheng and Miss Yang on page 5 of the Home section?
Sigh...
And as a parting shot (and perhaps allowing the conspiracy theorist in me to emerge), I wonder if perhaps this coverage of the dispute between Miss Yang and Miss Cheng is a move, within a larger strategy, to discredit the maturity and credibility of the local blogging community, thereby making people doubtful of its ability to self-regulate?
Dawn vs Xiaxue? Who really cares? Well, I don't...
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1 comment:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=95327
LCC,
that is an interesting link.Perhaps there is some merit to the "conspiracy theory".
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