Bersih Gathering: Mainstream Media Silence And Lies
November 12, 2007
The mainstream media lied again. And will probably lie again tomorrow. And the day after that, and…oh you get the idea. Were you fooled?
How did the government manipulate the media regarding the Bersih gathering?
Some examples that I observed leading up to the event, and after the event itself:
Those of you tuned in to RTM TV, you would have seen the infomercials showing how demonstrations always end in violence.
But yet, the gathering was peaceful and the only time peace was disturbed was when the police cracked down violently. But you know what? The gathering didn’t end in violence. In fact, from where I was, the people were peaceful even though the police had treated us less than peacefully.
Then you get people like our beloved Prime Minister and his Deputy both saying that demonstrations are not the way of Malaysians. Oh hmm, I guess they either just formulated the Malaysian way a few days ago, or Khairy missed the memo.
The day before the rally, prominent blogger Elizabeth Wong from Suaram was invited to speak about human rights on Traxx FM (that’s Radio 4 for you oldies out there).
Having found out that she was on the government blacklist banning any coverage on the event, she was told at the last minute not to bother showing up.
That’s censorship for you!
Elizabeth also noticed that RTM Radio was broadcasting false news that the gathering was postponed. Such dirty tactics.
The day after the event, all news media, be it the TV, radio, or print claimed that only 4000 people attended the gathering.
Lim Kit Siang has of coursed challenged the government on this figure, which I know to be grossly incorrect. But like how The Star conveniently left out 6000+ voters in their report on Ipoh Timur, the media is just not telling you that 4000 was only the number of people at the Masjid Jamek meeting point (that were attacked by the police). They left out the other 30000+ people gathered elsewhere.
And instead of giving coverage to the event, did you notice how the event was blamed for all the traffic jams that happened throughout the Klang Valley?
Very smart move on the government’s part to spin it this way, and get the people to hate everything about the event.
But you know what? Just think of an alternative.
What if the police had approved the permit to march? Then perhaps the organizers and police can map out a route to walk in to reduce traffic problems.
Then you won’t need so many police roadblocks. To those of you that were stuck, the majority of you did see the police at the roadblocks, and not the people gathering to walk right?
So seriously, blame the government and blame the police for the traffic woes.
Like what 5xmom says, hopefully the media blackout/lies will translate to people actually getting curious and starting to come online to read more about the actual events that happened.
I’m looking forward to more lies to be printed soon, but I hope that Malaysians will think more critically of what they read/listen/watch on all mainstream media the next few days.
The mainstream media says the darndest things!
You Might Find These Interesting
- Government-owned Media Front Page News: Agong Allegedly Disapproves of Bersih
- Traffic Jams and A Case of Classical Conditioning
- Indian Temple Demolition and Chaos: Mainstream Media Silence
- Bersih Gathering: Masjid Jamek Police Violence
- Using Tear Gas On Innocent People Is Not Violence
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4 Responses to “Bersih Gathering: Mainstream Media Silence And Lies”
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the sad thing is how most of the people actually rely on the mainstream media, i.e my parents.
November 12, 2007 at 2:02 am
actually everyone do. what other options do we have? of course, now we have the cyberspace as another medium. But not everyone know how to utilize it. Again, how truthful is Internet medium too? I am not doubting about the creditability of this blog owner and the rest. Am just saying the facts.
Oops, off topic. Oh yeah, what a way to cover up the event. I guess it is really the ‘Malaysian’ way as it reminds me of another scenario that i experienced
November 12, 2007 at 9:36 am
tingtitlei (the one with THE domain name ;))
I guess you could try to show your parents which stuff in the media are not truthful. Or let them know the news that they missed out. It’s the same for my parents, so if anything happens not reported by the papers, I drop them some info also.
digitalric,
Yes, you are right. Not all Internet news are truthful. But for this event, I hope people can see that there were tons of people who were ACTUALLY at the event and blogged about it. Would you rather take in the collective wisdom of the Internet, or believe in politicians that weren’t there? And what’s the other event that was covered up? Don’t be vague la
November 12, 2007 at 9:46 am
Now that the government found itself in a corner, all the kid gloves are off!
They will do whatever it takes to remain in power.
Not for the good of the country but for themselves.
I think that Malaysians have long ago realised that all the English and Malay newspapers are owned by the BN component parties and read everything with a questioning mind! It’s entertaining to read what fools they are making themselves out to be.
Let Nov 10th be the starting point in the fight for a fairer government.
November 13, 2007 at 1:00 pm