Count

2/06/2008

Which is the headline?

So... what happened in Tuesday?
  1. The winter storm in China has subsided and millions of migrant workers (they travel from inner states to prosperous states like Guangzhou for work) will be able to go home to enjoy Chinese New Year with their families. Electricity is restored in several key provinces and families who have gone a whole week without electricity are finally getting light and hot water back.
  2. The US economy is in a full recession with the newest service industry report out indicating a reduction that hasn't happened in years. European markets pummel on news of more sub-prime losses for European banks.
  3. Reporter Cheng Cheong was surprisingly released from prison. Cheng has been convicted of espionage by China and has been in prison for a year and a half now. He has been the focus of human rights groups in Hong Kong and his release is seen as both a victor for these groups and one for the Chinese justice system (!?).
  4. More X-rated photos of a Hong Kong entertainer (Edison Chan) and his various "engagements" with girls, including four girls who are fellow entertainers surface on the Internet. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Police has arrested a computer technician accused of stealing those pictures while fixing the computer. The Police have been under fire for coming down hard on people who have posted those raucous on Internet discussion boards. Edison has been in exile in US and all the girls have been out of sight since the pictures first surfaced 10 days ago.
All TV stations are running with 1 as the headline and 3, 2, and 4 next (in that order).

All newspapers are running with 4 as their headlines. (This includes the Apple Daily, which calls itself the newspaper of truth; also the newspaper which ran an extra in the afternoon to urge people to vote for the pro-democratic candidate Anson Chan)

I'm sad that this is happening in Hong Kong. The TV media seems to have gotten it right. The newspapers, not so much. I read one piece and I felt that it came straight out of a Internet chat room. And they call themselves journalists.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

(1) is good news cos I'll be in Shanghai in another week. Gong Hey fatt choy!

Justin said...

My thoughts exactly. This 淫照 thing is such peanuts compared to the Mainland troubles and Ching Cheong being released.

But think about it... this is only a reflection of how HK media sells papers. Surveys indicated that most HK people read the tabloid pages before the A1 headlines.