Editors thrashed

Wong Chun Wai, Syed Nadzri trash, say bloggers. Wong, The STAR's top journo who also blogs, is being labelled as a racist who contributes to the sharpening of racial tones by selective reporting. Read excerpts from rabid Umno blogger Big Dog's Chun Wai: Blinkered racism analysis to demonize a Statesman here:

Similarly in the case of Hindraf. If Wong and the rest of the non-Malay community found that Ahmad Ismail’s remarks offensive and deserving a punishent even to the extend of the full force of the sedition laws as proposed by the MCA president wannabe Ong Tee Keat (not forgetting Lim Guan Eng’s police report to the ACA in case Ahmad gets away unpunished), surely similar demand should have been made against the Hindraf leaders by the alert MCA leaders and newspaper editor, the DAP and the rest who are bent on seeing Ahmad crucified for his alleged seditious slurs (alleged because he has denied it and accused Sin Chew of manipulating his speech – in the case of Hindraf, their seditious slurs are there in black and white in the memorandum which Wong could have donwloaded and printed it and judge it as quick as he judged Dr Mahathir).

Apanama, in "Tak Chun" Wai here, accuses the top editor of the MCA-owned daily of trying to incite racism among the Chinese community despite the Prime Minister's order to the media last Saturday to stop fanning sensitive racial issues.

The affable Syed Nadzri of the NST, the Umno-controlled English-language daily, comes under heavy shelling all the way from California in Dr M. Bakri Musa's Sycophantic Editors Ruin Trust, here.

A measure of how far detached from reality those who sit in the editorial suites of our mainstream papers can be gauged by the pre-election editorial of The New Straits Times where its Editor-in-Chief Syed Nadzri boldly predicted that Anwar would be defeated*. Obviously Syed Nadzri was beginning to believe his own spin.

In coming to such a wildly off-the-mark conclusion, Syed Nadzri is either a lousy observer of the public mood or he is more concerned with sucking up to his political superiors. In either case, he does not deserve to be the custodian of such a valuable and essential institution of modern society.

Bakri's posting was published by the Malaysiakini and reproduced by Lim Kit Siang in his blog.

My observations apply equally to those who helm Bernama, RTM and TV Tiga, as well as the other mainstream papers like The Star, Berita Harian, and Utusan Melayu. What we have today is a generation of pseudo or pretend editors and journalists. Ever wonder why the public ignores them? They have betrayed the public’s trust in them.

Rocky's Bru: I suggest that editors (who write regular columns) in the NST, Berita Harian, Bernama, The Star, theSun, and news controllers from Media Prima and RTM have their own blogs to respond to arguments forwarded by bloggers such as the above. The blogosphere is not off-limits to the genuine journalist. A blog will provide a level playing field for the journalist to engage in a discourse with the blogger. And such a discourse can only be good for freedom of expression.

* I must have missed the article in which Syed Nadzri had "boldy predicted that Anwar would be defeated" at Permatang Pauh.

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