Of journalists said to be BN lap dogs

I was told by a journalist friend that on the night of May 5th, a group of his colleagues had gathered in front of a TV screen at their newsroom as the GE13 results were announced one after another.

There were cries of joy whenever it was made known that a Pakatan candidate had won in his/her constituency.

The optimistic mood was quite apparent as initially it appeared that Pakatan was in the lead. That was until it became clear that BN had won the election.

My friend's colleagues who gathered to celebrate a possible Pakatan's victory that night range from junior reporters to senior editors.

No, my friend and his colleagues are not journalists of the backstabbing covertly pro-Pakatan the Star.

They are actually journalists of the New Straits Times which has always been touted by the Pakatan people as an Umno's lap-dog newspaper.

My friend who is a hardcore BN supporter said he was very upset by the behavior of his colleagues that night.

"But there is nothing much I can do about it. These people cari makan working for this newspaper but support those who are running down us all," he said.

"Can you imagine journalists working for the pro-Pakatan Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider being supporters of BN?" he asked, adding that his pro-Pakatan colleagues had even raised through the rank in NST despite their political affiliation to become heads of editorial departments and senior writers.

I was honestly skeptical when my friend told me about all these several days ago. It can't be that bad, I thought.

But what happened at NST yesterday sorts of confirmed what my friend told me about his colleagues. You can read it here,

Exodus, NST as Insider recruits

It was learnt that the entire team of NST's crime and court desk journalists led by Lionel Morais resigned en-bloc, handing their 24 hour notice yesterday. The only exception was a senior journalist who refused to go with them.

Malaysian Insider must had paid quite a lot of money to cover the costs of the journalists' defection.

Nonetheless, it was as what Rocky wrote - a big blow to NST.

The thing is, the NST bosses should actually know what was coming their way.

These are previous postings by Rocky on Lionel who used to be his protege in Malay Mail many years ago,

Khazanah: We didn't appoint Fox

After Hindraf, NST gets new Chief News Editor

Motherfuckers in the newsroom