Ah, Media -- Mine and Yours

TWO SIGHTINGS TODAY, and comicably, or ironically or strangely, for once, any conclusions can be drawn from reading the leaves, ALTHOUGH WE ARE LOOKING AT THE SAME OBJECTS/SUBJECTS/REJECTS? And for this Sunday, I vary my rumination away from spiritual and godly things (as if Desi is qualified? Thinking aloud is still allowed hear!)and focus on a subject close to my terrain (IF NORMAL DDC holds, the last word before bracketing reads as TERRORTRY:)

Reading 1:

From The Malaysian Insider:

Hawks back changes at The Star

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — His moves to make personnel changes at The Star may be unpopular in the newsroom and with the financial community but Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat will find much support from his Cabinet colleagues and government circles for his daring.

It is an open secret that the tone and coverage of the country's largest English daily has been under scrutiny since Election 2008, with ministers and senior civil servants griping about the space the newspaper has been giving to the opposition and the tone of its reports on government initiatives.

The names of other newspapers owned by Barisan Nasional political parties have also been raised during meetings attended by ministers and government officials but inevitably the discussion veers to The Star, said officials who have been present at several such discussions.

"There is a concern that The Star is behaving like an anti-establishment paper. One minister even said that it was like Harakah, '' a senior government official told The Malaysian Insider. Harakah is the newspaper of Pas and is known for its uncharitable coverage of the Barisan Nasional and government policies.

In a filing made with Bursa Malaysia, Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd announced several boardroom changes. Of this the most important was news that Datuk Steven Tan has given six months’ notice of his intention to relinquish his position as executive deputy chairman.

Tan, 60, however, will remain as a non-executive director. It is understood that party veteran Tan Sri Sak Cheng Lum is also expected to step down from the board soon. Analysts view these changes at the boardroom level as steps by Tee Keat to increase his influence in the influential daily and reduce the hold on those close to former MCA president Tun Ling Liong Sik.

Ling has been a strong supporter of Datuk Chua Soi Lek, the party's deputy president and staunch rival of Tee Keat. In all likelihood, these boardroom changes have more to do with political affiliation than with a change in editorial policy but there is a view in government that Steven Tan and his protégé, Datuk Linda Ngiam, were driving editorial policy.

Despite the political sea change after March 8, ministers and government officials still believe that newspapers owned by BN political parties should be supporting the government and should not go out of their way to be critical of the establishment.

The Star sells some 315,000 copies a day and has made significant inroads in the Malay community. Steven and other senior personnel at the paper have been pushing for more even-handed coverage of national politics and issues even before the general election. But their coverage became more aggressive following the significant gains by Pakatan Rakyat at the expense of BN in Election 2008.

Recently, the paper was lauded by the opposition for its coverage of parliamentary proceedings — a fact which only served to confirm the misgiving hawks in the administration have about The Star.

Reading 2:

I had received since yesterday via SMS and email a

message from Raja Petra which in effect has urged the public to join:

"CAMPAIGN TO BOYCOTT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA/KEMPEN BOIKOT MEDIA ARUS PERDANA (main stream media) for 2 weeks, starting from 5th Jan by Bloggers and Pakatan Rakyat (People's Party) supporters."

Reading 3:

Come back for Desi's rumination after my CON BF, hopefully by noon or after, definitely I can't deliver before as the mothercraftnurse is away on house calls, InsyaAllah. But remember, Man proposes, God Disposes (and Woman .......?)

After a long digestion period, Desi resumes at early hour of 11.06PM his bytes:)

This must be a comedic comment, right? whoever is the Originator -- "There is a concern that The Star is behaving like an anti-establishment paper. One minister even said that it was like Harakah, ''...

Hey, someone is creditig new MCA chief OngTeeKeat -- he with his arrogance jumping at you every time he speaks! -- as being so media-progressive to allow The MCA owned paper to suddenly bloom in its independent ways. Or is The Malaysian Insider not "informed" enough to be able to tell that the Editors, especially the GEICs, in the MSM newsrooms will always or mostly bend with the wind to heed The Master's Voice? Oh, I hear most of these MI staffers are ex-NST, therefore are more informed about the NST's bents, not the People's Paper.I humbly stand corrected on this view, so if any MI editor/s should sight my commentary, please add another "number" to my almost vacant Commenters' queue, do some season's charity?

Wrt Analysts view these changes at the boardroom level as steps by Tee Keat to increase his influence in the influential daily and reduce the hold on those close to former MCA president Tun Ling Liong Sik. -- my question is: How is OngTK any better taking over LingLiongSik's chair in steering The Star? One UMNO puppet is not much different forom the predecessor or the next! Tun Ling was chief sucker to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's mega projects; so OTK will be cheif sucker to presently PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's; hopefully, for NegaraKu's sake, NOT graduating to sucking PM-in-waiting2pounce Najib Razak's in a few months time. Ah, quoting my fave Shakespeare, "Beware the Ides of March!" I hear DSAI is another Shakespearean quoter... greatness by aRsEsociation for middling writhers with asSpirations to become poets ala Max Ehrmann:) This last few sentences cometh under Blogger's Licence to DIGRESS, and it's not yet covered by the PPPA1980.

Wrt2 Recently, the paper was lauded by the opposition for its coverage of parliamentary proceedings — a fact which only served to confirm the misgiving hawks in the administration have about The Star.My response is: REALLY?

If The Star was anywhere near Harakah, it must have earned the praises of Bloggers like Raja Petra Kamarudin, and one bunch headed by HarisI of the People's Parliament and lietenanted by Bernard Khoo aka Zorro (who launched a Hartal MSM some time back...), and PKR supporters -- SO WHY THE LATEST CAMPAIGN TO BOYCOTT MSM? Methinks the Originator of that Joke must have drunk too much UMNO-sanctioned liquer, buttressed by wads of Petronas million-ringgit bills since federal governmentship is nigh?

Okay, maybe it's the New Straits Times the boycotters (girlcotters2, one must be equally sensitive to gender in this www age although many of 'em don't wear bras so there is no danger of them burning half of Streisand at Desi's Place!:) are targeting in their Boycott campaign -- but where then does this leave theSun?
In Desi's opinion -- not truly humble because I share some of TeeKeat's arrogance -- theSun team, especially its investigative reporting wing headed by R Nadeswaran have been trying their best to do a decent job of telling the news as it is.

My comment on this MSM boycott is that it's better we engage all media, be it MSM, online or underground, for only by engagement will we be able to win over the rivals. Or if we are the eventual losers, then blame ourselves for not preparing the forces well to do better. I read some SUN TZU's, and if you boycott the rival's papers, how do you gather information of your enemy's territory and moves?

I don't believe in throwing out any baby with the bath water. I have served in both mainstream and online or alternative media for about three decades, and believe me, most of my colleaues are/were/have been/will continue to be well-intentioned and meaning Malaysians trying to do their job as best they can within the local context and under the prevailing political/corporate circumstances. A buddy's company had applied for a licence to publish an English daily paper a few years ago, but they are kept waiting. Until Godot cometh home wit' Samy Vellu's cows?

Media lovers should more meaningfully campaign for the abolition of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1980. Then we can see federal opposition papers publishing dailies (NOT weekliy like the present state of affairs with Harakah dan SuaraKeadilan; that dan is because both are in Bahasa Malaysia, you dummies!:)

The lesson to learn about BOYCOTTS can be obtainable from a parallel political move by the Socialist Front cmprising Parti Sosialis and Labour Party to boycott the General Elections in 1969 -- so what happened? These parties just faded from the scene.

Desiderata's final sprint of 100m in the 1,500m-run is to run a present federal Opposition paper with an A*team; yeah, my editorials may even have a touch of OTK's arrogance. So bye:(/buy!:)