CNN, BBC Fully Deserve Criticism Over Thai Protest Coverage

[timekeeper]

its all right for you lot to be pontificating about the coverage after the fact but did any of you do anything whilst it was going on?

i complained bitterly to the Times on line, CNN and BBC about their biased one sided coverage

i also wrote to Al Jazeera to comment favourably on theirs

i spoke to the Sun newspaper by telephone and the British embassy about Jeff Savage whose name i broke first on this very forum.

i had responses from them all, not helpful but responses that made them aware someone was out there

i sent over 30 text messages to Abhisit's SMS service offering advise and support

if you want to make a difference then take a little time out and do it at the pertinent time, not after

its easy to comment after the game......

You might want to consider getting off your high horse since you have no idea what posters on this forum did or did not do during the protests.

Bragging about your "efforts" isn't going to do you any good either....

wow! Mr 37 posts newbie, your opinion is really valuable

so thanks for the suggestion but my high horse suits me just fine

as a matter of fact it did do me some good, i felt much better about actually doing something about a situation that i felt strongly about instead of just being an armchair warrior on TV

thanks got your response though it says a lot more to the reader about you, than it does about me...............

[badgerbailey]

And who are you Mr. Sherman. What are your credentials ? Did the Nation or the Thailand Government pay you well for your rebuttal ?

Thank you for your opinion piece, but it only supports the government and does not help any any type of national reconciliation. You are being used or willing being used. The government propaganda fight to ward off any blame at all in Thailand's problem is well served by you.

I for one would believe CNN and BBC and rather than Mr Sherman AND THE NATION, but I am a long visitor to Thailand to I do not need any of the propaganda to help me make my own decisions. I see it with my own eyes everyday.

Excellent! Most people seem to think that tha Nation is the best newspaper for balanced non biased reporting and this is where you see a conflict between BBC/CNN and the Nation. I know who I would rather believe.

[badgerbailey]

its all right for you lot to be pontificating about the coverage after the fact but did any of you do anything whilst it was going on?

i complained bitterly to the Times on line, CNN and BBC about their biased one sided coverage

i also wrote to Al Jazeera to comment favourably on theirs

i spoke to the Sun newspaper by telephone and the British embassy about Jeff Savage whose name i broke first on this very forum.

i had responses from them all, not helpful but responses that made them aware someone was out there

i sent over 30 text messages to Abhisit's SMS service offering advise and support

if you want to make a difference then take a little time out and do it at the pertinent time, not after

its easy to comment after the game......

Some people have far too much time on their hands

[mjnaus]

its all right for you lot to be pontificating about the coverage after the fact but did any of you do anything whilst it was going on?

i complained bitterly to the Times on line, CNN and BBC about their biased one sided coverage

i also wrote to Al Jazeera to comment favourably on theirs

i spoke to the Sun newspaper by telephone and the British embassy about Jeff Savage whose name i broke first on this very forum.

i had responses from them all, not helpful but responses that made them aware someone was out there

i sent over 30 text messages to Abhisit's SMS service offering advise and support

if you want to make a difference then take a little time out and do it at the pertinent time, not after

its easy to comment after the game......

You might want to consider getting off your high horse since you have no idea what posters on this forum did or did not do during the protests.

Bragging about your "efforts" isn't going to do you any good either....

wow! Mr 37 posts newbie, your opinion is really valuable

so thanks for the suggestion but my high horse suits me just fine

as a matter of fact it did do me some good, i felt much better about actually doing something about a situation that i felt strongly about instead of just being an armchair warrior on TV

thanks got your response though it says a lot more to the reader about you, than it does about me...............

Thank God the value of one's opinion is not measured by the number of posts here on TV

Cheap shot: judging by the number of posts made by yourself; you might want to reconsider who you'd call an "armchair warrior on TV"

Moving on....

[Who, me ?]

Excellent piece of writing Mr. Sherman, well done!! I couldn't agree more with everything you say. CNN and the BBC were totally irresponsible with their biased and inaccurate reporting.

I agree too.

Can not agree more!

[jayboy]

I am a long term resident of Thailand (15 years) who was watching the only "live" coverage I could get from my hospital bed outside Thailand on BBC World. I was STUNNED at the coverage. I saw it as one-sided and with none of the analysis I would expect from a news organisation I respect and admire. When I read the article in The Nation this morning I felt my opinion to have been vindicated.

I don't want to take sides in the political argument only on the coverage which had none of the depth we got a few weeks later when Athens had violent riots which were covered with cause and effect commentary.

I think the one-sided coverage of the situation in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole for this event meant that many people world-wide remain ignorant of the many problems besetting the country which need to be discussed if only to get both sides of the political argument to look beyond their personal bank balances and spread some of the wealth fairly and equitably to areas of need. But that said the Army, for whatever reason and on whoever's orders, deserves congratulations for its handling of an awful situation which would not have been tolerated in many of our more politically "sophisticated" societies as the article quite correctly points out.

I don't think more "sophisticated" societies would tolerate domination by a feudal elite, a treasonable military coup, manipulation of justice,a rigged constitution and murder of unarmed civilians.There are many foreigners (what on earth are they doing here - few seem to have proper jobs)who rant about the BBC and CNN coverage.But it's a complex situation.Look around at several media outlets and one can find reasonable coverage.Don't rely on one source.

[MCos]

BBC & CNN news is like Thai food in foreign restaurants; you think you are getting the real thing until you come here.

[junglist]

Al Jazeera gets my vote but i still double check... CNN you lost me some time ago...

[mausplan]

its all right for you lot to be pontificating about the coverage after the fact but did any of you do anything whilst it was going on?

i complained bitterly to the Times on line, CNN and BBC about their biased one sided coverage

i also wrote to Al Jazeera to comment favourably on theirs

i spoke to the Sun newspaper by telephone and the British embassy about Jeff Savage whose name i broke first on this very forum.

i had responses from them all, not helpful but responses that made them aware someone was out there

i sent over 30 text messages to Abhisit's SMS service offering advise and support

if you want to make a difference then take a little time out and do it at the pertinent time, not after

its easy to comment after the game......

Timekeeper : During the protests I wrote about biased coverage to Al Jazzera ( and got a sensible reply) , to the ABC ( acknowledgement but no follow up) and to Fox ( no response) . I attached the video shot by a Thai TV crew showing the Reds attacking 3 soldiers in a truck near Din Daeng. One soldier going out of the passenger side ,waied to the crowd who attacked him. A hooded Red took a rifle off the sole soldier in the back of the truck , jumped down went to where the first soldier had been knocked to the ground and shot him. everyone took a step back, the shooter patted the soldier on the chest and ran off. Was the soldier dead ? I don' know but he was totally limp, eyes shut , the Reds picked him up and threw into in the back of a covered pick up and took off. This was shown on Thai TV The clip has been in wide circulation.

[RegularReader]

Jayboy there is truth in what you say.

Just as there is truth in saying that many "ordinary" Thai people did not blindly adhere to or support the red shirt's aims and methods.

In fact the point of the article is to say this is a very complex situation, but CNN & BBC did not explain this.

That is what there is to agree or disagree with - in this thread.

[hammered]

Interesting point about the editing out of certain parts of a video. That is a questionable practice and anyone who studioes how media works will know that slanting by exclusion is one of the most insidious if unnoticed practices of media.

If anyone cares to do content analysis of a lot of the Thai poltical blogosphere they will find this practice is rampant leading to a bias greater than any of the mainstream Thai media by any measure of exclusion or analysis of content. The international media are not as bad as that but this piece does raise interesting criticisms with example. In fairness although international reproting is the area in which the international media can be found most wanting or bias either by content or exclusion the case of Thailand does pale compared to some other far more controversial (for western governments) reporting.

By the way the twitterheads (or whatever you call them) caught New Straits Times clipping the last video of the killed Japanese reporter to oddly enough fit the line they were peddling within hours of them doing it, so things sometimes get caught.

[jackdawson]

like i said before

the joke that was the CNN/BBC reporting makes u think about all the other western reporting from hot spots that has come before (tiananmen , iraq , etc.)

if u live in bkk (walked among them like i did) and lived through the two month-long red squat in at ratchaprasong , u know they were a combination of uneducated , murderous black-sheathed thugs (i.e., motorcy and tuk tuk drivers and out-of-work soldiers) and paid-by-the-day (from montengro) large sized middle age isaan houswives between rice crops w/ absolutely nothing to do but come down and f up the nation's capital

before burning a lot of it down

i don't know how a reporter having flown in the night before and staying at a 5 star hotel with a great breakfast buffet could have missed this

[jayboy]

like i said before

the joke that was the CNN/BBC reporting makes u think about all the other western reporting from hot spots that has come before (tiananmen , iraq , etc.)

if u live in bkk (walked among them like i did) and lived through the two month-long red squat in at ratchaprasong , u know they were a combination of uneducated , murderous black-sheathed thugs (i.e., motorcy and tuk tuk drivers and out-of-work soldiers) and paid-by-the-day (from montengro) large sized middle age isaan houswives between rice crops w/ absolutely nothing to do but come down and f up the nation's capital

before burning a lot of it down

i don't know how a reporter having flown in the night before and staying at a 5 star hotel with a great breakfast buffet could have missed this

Thank you for this useful and intelligent insight.It's always a good sign when a post begins "like I said before", an indicator of a first class intellect at work.

As you will note, your views are shared by many on this forum, although it is rare to have them expressed with such clarity and incisiveness.I hope you will not be shy about sharing your insights. clearly based on wide reading and study of Thai history and politics.What impresses me most however is your generosity of spirit, though while clearly sceptical about the Red agenda still prepared to reach out with a touching display of human understanding.

[Insight]

I am a long term resident of Thailand (15 years) who was watching the only "live" coverage I could get from my hospital bed outside Thailand on BBC World. I was STUNNED at the coverage. I saw it as one-sided and with none of the analysis I would expect from a news organisation I respect and admire. When I read the article in The Nation this morning I felt my opinion to have been vindicated.

I don't want to take sides in the political argument only on the coverage which had none of the depth we got a few weeks later when Athens had violent riots which were covered with cause and effect commentary.

I think the one-sided coverage of the situation in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole for this event meant that many people world-wide remain ignorant of the many problems besetting the country which need to be discussed if only to get both sides of the political argument to look beyond their personal bank balances and spread some of the wealth fairly and equitably to areas of need. But that said the Army, for whatever reason and on whoever's orders, deserves congratulations for its handling of an awful situation which would not have been tolerated in many of our more politically "sophisticated" societies as the article quite correctly points out.

I don't think more "sophisticated" societies would tolerate domination by a feudal elite, a treasonable military coup, manipulation of justice,a rigged constitution and murder of unarmed civilians.There are many foreigners (what on earth are they doing here - few seem to have proper jobs)who rant about the BBC and CNN coverage.But it's a complex situation.Look around at several media outlets and one can find reasonable coverage.Don't rely on one source.

I would ask the same question about Jeff Savage, and a few other Pattaya based "freelance" foreigners who seem to aligned themselves with the red shirt cause. There are a good number of ne'er-do-well foreign "barflies" who have few problems with the context of BBC and CNN reports. It doesn't take much investigation to discover that the main reason for this is their close links with the Isaan region, for one reason or another...

[phosphorescent]

its all right for you lot to be pontificating about the coverage after the fact but did any of you do anything whilst it was going on?

i complained bitterly to the Times on line, CNN and BBC about their biased one sided coverage

i also wrote to Al Jazeera to comment favourably on theirs

i spoke to the Sun newspaper by telephone and the British embassy about Jeff Savage whose name i broke first on this very forum.

i had responses from them all, not helpful but responses that made them aware someone was out there

i sent over 30 text messages to Abhisit's SMS service offering advise and support

if you want to make a difference then take a little time out and do it at the pertinent time, not after

its easy to comment after the game......

Agreed, It's easy for people to write into forums like this one without making any difference. During the protest I wrote to a polititian in my home country who was just pubicaly repeating everything that BBC and CNN were reporting and denouncing the Thai government. In fairness to him, he read what I had to say and replied to me. Later, after some more facts were provided to him by me about the news coverage, he deleted all of his comments about Thailand from all of his social networking sites and said he would look into the matter further by contacting people on the ground.

[jackdawson]

Thank you for this useful and intelligent insight

ur welcome

have them expressed with such clarity and incisiveness

thank you

I hope you will not be shy about sharing your insights

i shall try my best

re:

generosity of spirit ...human understanding

u mean the same "generosity of spirit" and "human understanding" the reds showed the owners and users of central world / center one and the innocent bystander killed at the sala daeng station when grenaded from lumphini ?

[pookiki]

I was on a visa run for most of the time the crackdown started. It was hard to get any factual news since the Thai Government had shut down any websites that were deemed to be supporting the "terrorists" -- like Prachatai. Has anyone read the news that the head of the Prachatai website, a woman, is facing eight years in prison!!

The Nation and the Post were obviously engaged in self-censorship for self-preservation. I was watching BBC, CNN, and Channel News Asia to get my news. Of the three, I found CNA's reporting to be very good because their coverage included interview with Thai acadmics in Singapore and the UK to provide political analysis on the conflict. It is very sad that Singapore, a country where the press is tightly controlled, could provide better news coverage than any English media outlet in Thailand!

The state of emergency has created such an atmosphere of hysteria and unrestricted government censorship, that it is nearly impossible to get any balanced news coverage in Thailand. Thailand is slipping in the index of press freedom and deservedly so.

Whether one thinks reconciliation is possible or not, a free society in Thailand cannot be built on a foundation of government censorship that is clearly unwarranted.

[jayboy]

I am a long term resident of Thailand (15 years) who was watching the only "live" coverage I could get from my hospital bed outside Thailand on BBC World. I was STUNNED at the coverage. I saw it as one-sided and with none of the analysis I would expect from a news organisation I respect and admire. When I read the article in The Nation this morning I felt my opinion to have been vindicated.

I don't want to take sides in the political argument only on the coverage which had none of the depth we got a few weeks later when Athens had violent riots which were covered with cause and effect commentary.

I think the one-sided coverage of the situation in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole for this event meant that many people world-wide remain ignorant of the many problems besetting the country which need to be discussed if only to get both sides of the political argument to look beyond their personal bank balances and spread some of the wealth fairly and equitably to areas of need. But that said the Army, for whatever reason and on whoever's orders, deserves congratulations for its handling of an awful situation which would not have been tolerated in many of our more politically "sophisticated" societies as the article quite correctly points out.

I don't think more "sophisticated" societies would tolerate domination by a feudal elite, a treasonable military coup, manipulation of justice,a rigged constitution and murder of unarmed civilians.There are many foreigners (what on earth are they doing here - few seem to have proper jobs)who rant about the BBC and CNN coverage.But it's a complex situation.Look around at several media outlets and one can find reasonable coverage.Don't rely on one source.

I would ask the same question about Jeff Savage, and a few other Pattaya based "freelance" foreigners who seem to aligned themselves with the red shirt cause. There are a good number of ne'er-do-well foreign "barflies" who have few problems with the context of BBC and CNN reports. It doesn't take much investigation to discover that the main reason for this is their close links with the Isaan region, for one reason or another...

I think that's very possible and I think the Isaan connection you mention may well be the key.Equally there are many foreigners in relationships with (mainly) lower middle class urban women who blithely absorb the yellow line.Genuinely independent minded people are few.

[jayboy]

u mean the same "generosity of spirit" and "human understanding" the reds showed the owners and users of central world / center one and the innocent bystander killed at the sala daeng station when grenaded from lumphini ?

Yes the destruction of Central World was the great tragedy in all this.Thank you for reminding us what the priorities should be.

[hideki]

I filly agree that Thailand should kick out Foreign media

Who are you agreeing with? No one has said that.

Most people seem to think that tha Nation is the best newspaper for balanced non biased reporting

Who has said that? No one, let alone "most", has said that.

[puyaidon]

I was here during the entire episode of the red-shirts and yellow shirts and something was reported in a way that had friends in the states calling and emailing me about how I was doing during the demonstrations. The news they were getting in the states made it seem that the entire country was burning and full scale war was imminent. Nothing was said about outside of the demonstration area. Nonthaburi had some but Pathum Thani had a little. I went to Petchburi province and it was calm with nothing happening. Those outside areas were not reported so everything in Bangkok made it seem like the demonstration was country-wide. Friends in Pattaya reported things were normal although a little low on tourists. Yes, the news was biased on CNN and very one-sided. But then, they are very liberal in their reporting of events in the states so they are going to do it here also. It is surprising to hear about BBC as I have always heard good reports on their reporting. It seems that the news media is only concerned with exciting events rather than the real truth. There are enough of you readers that know that events taking place were not broadcasted truthfully and had to sift through the rhetoric for the truth. Yes, even the government did some laundering of the story but again everyone did. Let's find out the real story before commenting on the CNN/BBC news hype that always seems to be the only story until the real truth emerges.

[hideki]

Interesting point about the editing out of certain parts of a video. That is a questionable practice and anyone who studioes how media works will know that slanting by exclusion is one of the most insidious if unnoticed practices of media.

The same with audio. Look how much mileage the Reds got with their splicing and dicing of Abhisit's audiotaped speech. Considering the amount and level of violence it helped to instigate, its no wonder that that sort of "media lies" (red television and radio) is deemed so detrimental to the country.

By the way the twitterheads (or whatever you call them) caught New Straits Times clipping the last video of the killed Japanese reporter to oddly enough fit the line they were peddling within hours of them doing it, so things sometimes get caught.

Couldn't happen to a worse news agency.

Strait Times have shown over time to be probably reddish news agency in SE Asia, which is a shame because previously it had a terrific reputation. It was the go-to paper I read in Malaysia during the 1969 race riots.

btw, could you give a heads up on where that issue of them doctoring video may be found? Thank you.

[lensta]

Yes and the Nations reporting was accurate. Mr Sherman, if you are going to write an unbiased opinion then I think that

it would be wise to point out the biased reporting on both sides. oops you are writing this piece for the Nation news paper, aren't you?

[Valentine]

u mean the same "generosity of spirit" and "human understanding" the reds showed the owners and users of central world / center one and the innocent bystander killed at the sala daeng station when grenaded from lumphini ?

Yes the destruction of Central World was the great tragedy in all this.Thank you for reminding us what the priorities should be.

He did not prioritise anything. The fact of the matter is the reds did not give a flying f.... about who or what they damaged including the unfortunate soldier who was dragged from the truck. I wonder how many of their so called NE comrades have lost their livelihoods because of damage to tourism & property. You think the only damage was in BKK. Think again about all the money that is normally sent to families in the NE who now do not receive this anymore. There is so much more to this story than will ever be reported.

[RegularReader]

Yes and the Nations reporting was accurate. Mr Sherman, if you are going to write an unbiased opinion then I think that

it would be wise to point out the biased reporting on both sides. oops you are writing this piece for the Nation news paper, aren't you?

You fail to realize Mr. Sherman's article was not about Government bias or control of the media.

That is a very valid discussion topic on it's own.

This is about reporting on CNN & BBC.

Please stick to the topic.

[hideki]

An excerpt of a dispatch from the website of the most experienced war correspondent on the ground in Thailand today:

Michael Yon

20 June 2010

Flocks of journalists – local and international – had descended into the conflict zone, and the flocks naturally brought the toxic guano of consensus journalism, and also great physical danger for the journalists, which danger could be deceiving in Bangkok.

Comparing the difficulty of covering conflict in Thailand to Afghanistan or Iraq is to compare pebbles to boulders. The entrance obstacles to Iraq and Afghanistan will eliminate probably 99% of the international press from any meaningful, long-haul coverage.

By contrast, many international correspondents live in Thailand. CNN correspondent, Dan Rivers, reported that he and his family had to evacuate their residence because the fighting was so close. Covering Bangkok is no more difficult than covering Washington D.C., and in fact Bangkok might be easier when considering visa issues.

Full report:

Even While the World Watched

[hammered]

Interesting point about the editing out of certain parts of a video. That is a questionable practice and anyone who studioes how media works will know that slanting by exclusion is one of the most insidious if unnoticed practices of media.

The same with audio. Look how much mileage the Reds got with their splicing and dicing of Abhisit's audiotaped speech. Considering the amount and level of violence it helped to instigate, its no wonder that that sort of "media lies" (red television and radio) is deemed so detrimental to the country.

By the way the twitterheads (or whatever you call them) caught New Straits Times clipping the last video of the killed Japanese reporter to oddly enough fit the line they were peddling within hours of them doing it, so things sometimes get caught.

Couldn't happen to a worse news agency.

Strait Times have shown over time to be probably reddish news agency in SE Asia, which is a shame because previously it had a terrific reputation. It was the go-to paper I read in Malaysia during the 1969 race riots.

btw, could you give a heads up on where that issue of them doctoring video may be found? Thank you.

It was covered in multuiple tweets at the time. Im not sure how you can get back to them. I think/am pretty sure the nation tweets linked to it too. It compared the straits times version with the full one

[lensta]

Yes and the Nations reporting was accurate. Mr Sherman, if you are going to write an unbiased opinion then I think that

it would be wise to point out the biased reporting on both sides. oops you are writing this piece for the Nation news paper, aren't you?

You fail to realize Mr. Sherman's article was not about Government bias or control of the media.

That is a very valid discussion topic on it's own.

This is about reporting on CNN & BBC.

Please stick to the topic.

You fail to realize that I am sticking to the topic. As far as I can tell the topic is unfair and biased reporting by CNN & The BBC. I am pointing out

that Mr Sherman's writing is just as biased by not including other news sources in his article. Sorry if you have a problem with that, but if it bothers you that

much, you can complain to the mods

[mazeltov]

I wonder what Dave Shermans log in is on Thai Visa, the crap he spouts can be seen on a daily basis on here, another sad expat that has bought the government propaganda.

Come Dave, out yourself, which is your log in?

he writes his letters to the editor under the moniker "Bangkokddave" or "Bangkok Dave" and 'publish' his 'freelancer writings' mostly on facebook.

[hideki]

I was on a visa run for most of the time the crackdown started. It was hard to get any factual news since the Thai Government had shut down any websites that were deemed to be supporting the "terrorists" -- like Prachatai. Has anyone read the news that the head of the Prachatai website, a woman, is facing eight years in prison!!

Yes!! I have !!

And it is over a entirely different matter !!