Sitting at my desk earlier this week I was getting everything all nice and organized. Adjusting my chair height to find the perfect level of ergonomic comfort, trying different tilts of the monitor to compensate for the ever so slight crick in my neck, and of course setting everything up within my web browser to be just the way I want it.
I decided that I wanted my bookmark toolbar to have Google Translate, Grooveshark, my company’s online database, probably a few other things that are slipping my mind right now, plus a few RSS feeds for news. First off, I gave myself a Detnews feed to keep tabs on all my bros back home…shout out to the Tigers, Lions, Mayor Bing, Governor Snyder, Majority Leader Richardville, and Speaker Bolger. Then I decided to get some local news action going. It was here that I faced a choice of party, of conscience, of truth. Should I go for an RSS feed from the Taipei Times or the China Post? Both are English language newspapers, based here in Taipei and cover local as well as international news. But…clang of cymbals in the opera that is my life…both are not 同樣的事情.
Up till this past week I’d never even considered caring to read either of these newspapers on a regular basis. I’ve tried caring about what they’ve written before, but I’m always extremely underwhelmed by the reporting, particularly the writing, of both organizations…no offense to either of them intended…and to my friends who work at these news outlets I mean no disrespect. I know you all aren’t the problem. Now that I faced sitting at a desk for several hours every day, I figured I might as well be prepared to waste a little time reading some local news and break up the monotony that was sure to occur during the coming months.
I went to both newspapers’ websites and read some articles and tried to judge which newspaper would be awarded the coveted RSS feed spot on my bookmark toolbar. During my reading I came across the same politically charged story, with each news organizations’ spin added respectively. The story was incredibly different, depending on which newspaper was read.
Yes people. Even though Mandarin Chinese news organizations are the mainstream news sources here in Taiwan, somehow on this tiny little island, with a total population of 23 million, political bias has penetrated even the English (second-language), niche market of news outlets. One newspaper with a bias towards the KMT, and one towards the DPP.
For those of you unfamiliar with Taiwan politics, the KMT is the political party of Sun Yat Sen (Taiwan’s version of George Washington), Chiang Kai Shek (the President of Taiwan and leader of the army when the capitalists fled China in the 50s), and all but one of Taiwan’s President’s up till now. The DPP is the opposition party who have held the Presidency only once when Chen Shui Bian won the Presidency and served two terms right before the current President, KMT party leader Ma Ying Jeou. The main difference between the two parties, at least from what my limited observations have seen, is their policy towards mainland China.
I’ve known for some time which of these newspapers had which slant, but reading the same story from both back-to-back was pretty funny. See for yourself.
Here is the story as reported by the Taipei Times: link
And here is the same story as reported by the China Post: link
Isn’t that brilliant? Even more shocking: this article, which would seem to be pretty big news for Taiwan, doesn’t even get reported on in the China Post…or at least I couldn’t find it.
In closing I’d just like to make a few statements.
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