What is spinning

I used to read NST.

Yup, the one they accused of peddling BN propaganda back then.

Actually, to a certain extent, it's true.

The people who used to run the newspaper were guilty of that to further their self interests.

Real bastards, if you ask me.

It was the same with the other mainstream media organisations at that time.

Those mainstream media leaders used to kiss the BN bosses' ass to secure their place in the newsrooms.

And quite some of them did it so openly and blatantly with no shame whatsoever.

They got datukship, tan sriship and other awards along with business interests and other stuff, and one even got himself a publishing company as a reward.

These people include some who later on became politicians themselves and turned against BN in the run up to the GE14.

That was when BN was no longer controlled by their patrons and due to that they lost their portion of the cake at that time.

Well, the really unfortunate thing was that, because of those scumbags, journalists of the entire mainstream media and the news organisations they represented lost their credibility.

People lost their trust in the mainstream media, leading to the drop of newspapers' circulation and TV viewership.

Now what used to be the mainstream media is just a shell of itself. Some news outlets had even closed down.

And those responsible for what happened are still crowing about themselves, demanding respect and adulation as senior journalists.

Tokoh wartawan negara my ass.

Meanwhile, the real journalists are mostly out of job and doing other things to try to earn a living.

I know one who was planning to jual goreng pisang tepi jalan as the possibility of him losing his job became more real due to the Covid-19 crisis.

He said he wished he could set up a darts cafe but it was vetoed out by his wife because that would be too expensive a venture.

Ya, real journalists in this country don't earn much, okay.

Anyway, what used to be the mainstream media have now been replaced by the news portals such as Malaysiakini, FMT, MalayMail Online, Malaysian Insight etc, which thrive on anti-establishment propaganda to gain popularity. That was before Pakatan won the GE14.

They are actually the same as the likes of NST, Utusan and the other news outlets except that their political affiliation is supportive of Pakatan.

They actually employed worse spinning tactics.

For instance, NST, which I'm most familiar because I used to read it was quite clear about it being pro-BN at that time, unlike the portals who claimed themselves as being free and impartial but actually were not.

NST was also clear about what were its political commentaries and what were its political news.

A commentary is an opinion piece while a news is all about reporting facts, which means no spinning or editorialising.

NST didn't mix those two as far as during the period when I was still reading the newspaper.

Its political editor at that time who is my friend told me that it's about some sort of journalistic ethics. Well, that guy eventually got himself kicked out by his ass kissing bosses...probably because he talked too much about such thing. Stupid guy....hahahaha.

Anyway, such self restrain doesn't seem to be practiced by the pro-Pakatan portals.

This is an example,

PAS calls Pakatan power hungry for 
initiating no-confidence motion against PM

Its a Malay Mail Online piece written by one Azril Annuar.

If you read the headline, you would likely conclude that its a political news story, but if you read it, it's actually not so.

These are the opening paragraphs,

excerpts;

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — In a move worthy of the idiom “the pot calling the kettle black”, Islamist party PAS has accused the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition of being power hungry after the latter filed a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition member that entered Putrajaya through backdoor political dealings issued a statement today accusing the federal Opposition of instigating a drama by calling for emergency sessions of Parliament when its true intention was to unseat Muhyiddin.    

Note the words, that I highlighted in blue. They were not supposed to be in a news story, okay.

That's what spinning actually is - inserting one's own opinion into news facts.

And these were the closing paragraphs;

excerpts'

This is one of the rare few times that PAS has issued a statement since coming into federal power for the first time in decades.

The public, especially those online, have raised questions asking why PAS has gone quiet when it comes to the Islamic agenda.

During a Facebook Live session with Opposition chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently, the PKR president when asked to comment on PAS’ apparent silence also agreed, observing that the party’s leaders had kept mum on matters pertaining to the opening of lottery outlets such as Sports Toto and the temporary permit to operate a beer factory during the early days of the movement control order (MCO) while schools and mosques remained closed. 

What has the allegation (of the writer) that Pas rarely issued a statement got anything to do with the story?

Well, it's actually just another spin to discredit Pas' objection to yet another round of political crisis engineered by Pakatan as Malaysians struggle to survive the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.

For the record, Pas was invited to join the Perikatan Nasional government which was set up as per the Constitution and it was not involved in any way in causing the self-destruction of the Pakatan government.

Anyway, that's how the new media operates.

Same MO as the old ones, just that of different platforms and political affiliations....and sometimes using worse tactics.

If you don't believe me, just read those political stories that they published with an open heart and mind. Trust me,  you will detect the spins and sometimes even the outright lies.

What I read now?

I mostly just watch YouTube and read only whatever my friends sent me via social media.

Malas mau baca all those propaganda-laced stories.

Oh....wait.....the business portals are not so bad, I think. Sometimes I read them.

Eh, this posting is getting too long....enough lah ya.

Here's again another music video for fun,

It's actually from Akira Kurosawa's 1947 movie, Drunken Angel.

I love Shizuko Kasagi's singing....so cute.

Okay, ciao.