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"Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

China Times lies

The pan-blue media can't handle the truth!

Today's China Times bears a headline designed to cause pan-blue orgasms all across Pan-blovia. For those with an ounce of objectivity left in them, it reeks of desperation.

Here's the head-lie:
籲扁下台效應擴大：扁律師 閃靈主唱連署

[My translation:] Appeal to [Chen Shui-]bian to step down expands: [Chen Shui-]bian's lawyer, Chthonic lead singer sign online petition
My bullshit detector immediately said, "BULLSHIT!" My more logical side said I should still check things out.

I did.

Sir, your bullshit detector is working perfectly
Unlike the China Times, I checked my facts. On Chthonic lead singer Freddy Lim's blog, here's what Freddy himself says about his name being on that petition:
今天傍晚，赫然在〈民主政治和台灣認同的道德危機〉聲明的新一波連署名單上看到自己的名字，錯愕了五秒，接著則是一段長時間的思辯。這段思辯不該佔用我正全心準備本週五即將揭幕的野台開唱－我最寶貴－的時間；然而，我名字已被放上連署名單，記者已主動找上門來，不發表意見，只會被輕易貼標籤。

[...]

最後再次公開澄清，我並未連署該聲明，好朋友們一時誤植我的名字，也在最短的時間把我取下，感謝他們的體諒，我要為所有關心台灣轉型正義的朋友獻上最深的祝福，期盼台灣不分藍綠，一起還給我們這個苦難的國家與人民－轉型正義。

[My rough translation:] Earlier this evening, I was shocked to find my own name among those on the online petition entitled "Democracy and the Moral Crisis of Taiwanese Identity." I went into deep thought. This was the wrong time for such a thing to happen, because every bit of my time was needed in order to prepare for my upcoming concert this Friday. However, this had already happened and reporters were trying to get in touch with me. If I didn't say something immediately, I was afraid that this false label would be stuck to me forever.

[...]

Lastly, I want to reiterate publicly, I absolutely did not sign my name to that petition. Some "dear friends" must have "kindly" placed my name there without my knowledge. Within a short time, the petitioners removed my name, so I thank them for that. I wish the best of luck to those who care about transitional justice in Taiwan, and hope for a day when blue and green can come together and give the people of this nation the justice they deserve.
And it took me all of about 15 minutes to find that information.

Freddy also called in to several TV talk shows last night to talk about this, and yet the China Times still printed it as a front page headline.

The "blues who cried 'wolf'" are the "wolves"!
Once again, the proof is in the pudding that most of the media in Taiwan are one with the pan-blues and that the pan-blues are the ones in a deep "moral crisis."

This is the third time this month I've blogged on such tactics by the opponents of democracy in Taiwan. First, my name and words were usurped and used as a straw man on the blog of son-of-a-late-KMT-diplomat Bevin Chu. Next, fellow Taiwan democracy blogger Michael Turton's name was misappropriated in an apparent attempt to add credibility to a lost cause. Then came the China Times, whose lies touched someone with immediate access to more open media outlets. Freddy spoke out about this on the SET program 大話新聞 ("Talking Show") a short while ago repeating some of what he said above.

Where to now?
The least I could hope to come out of this would be for people to begin to wake up to the blatant lies and realize that there are many more that aren't as easy to spot. Ideally, I would like these recent events to be the catalyst for the rapid downfall of the China Times and all of the other mendacious media outlets in Taiwan.

Down with the lies! Long live truth!
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