Beware MSM editor's creative scissors-you read what they want you to read

Hi Friends,

Our MSM ( Mainstream Media) has a monopoly on what we get to read and hear.

For example, Specimen A below is what was edited and printed whilst Specimen B, was what I actually wrote.

It is exactly like in the advertisement where the tennis coach was telling the student's father what a physically-challenged child his son was and how the boy could be a case-study for physiology on what poor "hand-eye coordination" is about. Instead after some selective listening on the father's part, he only hears about how the boy was God's gift for the world of tennis!
(Dr.Huang: The advertisement cited is the "HEAR ONLY THE NICE THINGS...RADIO 90.5" advertisement)

Does anybody else get the impression that the recent reshuffle at the Straits Times has made the MSM even more intolerant of alternative views than what it already was? Or is it just me?

Anyway, you cannot say I did not try to speak out!

Dr.Huang Shoou Chyuan


Specimen A ( What was printed in the Straits Times forum page- 19.2.08)
All in all, we like what we hear
DESPITE Budget handouts, I'd still rather be rich than poor or middle-class. But it almost seemed good to be poor. Yet, our welfare net is not impervious enough to prevent the needy from slipping through the cracks. And some of the middle-class are still sceptical as recent hikes in ERP and university charges make these Budget giveaways seem like 'one hand taking away what the other hand gives'. Still, Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, we like what we hear and we want you to stay on.



Specimen B (What I actually wrote to the editor)

Despite budget handouts, I'd still rather be rich than poor or middle-class

The generous hongbao budget handouts amounting to $1.8B by Mr. Tharman in his maiden Finance Minister budget speech was welcome by all. However, we must see it in its proper prospective.

From the hullabaloo and euphoric articles in our main-stream media, it almost seemed good to be poor in Singapore. The stark truth is that the poor are still living from "hand to mouth" and our welfare net is not impervious enough to prevent the needy from slipping through cracks. From time to time, people still die lonely deaths behind locked doors. Their bodies are discovered only when the stench of decay became too overwhelming.Some of the middle-class are still sceptical as recent hikes in ERP and university charges make these budget giveaways seem like "one hand taking away what the other hand gives".

Still, Mr. Minister, we like what we hear and we want you to stay on. Perhaps with you at the Treasury, there is a reasonable chance that you can help Singapore reduce its Gini Coefficient. This statistical measurement of the rich-poor disparity is shockingly high.

At the end of the day, I'd still rather be rich in Singapore. Being poor (even in Singapore) still sucks.

Dr.Huang Shoou Chyuan