The Pearl (Mis)report

Warning this post is not a whinny rant; it just sounds like one!

On Sunday night the TVB Hong Kong aired its weekly news magazine “The Pearl Report” The host, as all ways was Dianna Lin who always does her dead level best to look like a female Captain Kangaroo. She spent the whole program “investigating” the relevancy of blogs. Dianna proved once again why I think she should be replace with the comedian Lydia Lum. At least Lydia is funny.

The only legitimate blog they actually looked at was EastSouthWestNorth. Otherwise the program looked at goofballs with cell-phone video cams that were interviewing protesters at the various protest over the past several weeks and months. Don’t get me wrong, if people want to make their own video documentaries on these protest then I think they should. But when they say, as one girl did that in effect they show a particular point of view then what they are making is no longer a documentary but propaganda. They are not interested to find out what the truth is because they already think they know. I am glad that the MSM in Hong Kong has finally noticed the blogs. It is just that the people they picked with the exception of EastSouthWestNorth were pretty much cranks or unfunded digital movie and documentary/propaganda maker want-to-be types.

I think the idea to do this show came from the “Bus Uncle” video on You-Tube. (By the way, I think that video was staged nobody in Hong Kong acts that way.) There are, in fact many good Hong Kong bloggers. Some are linked on this site. (I would not list my self among them because I primarily do navel gazing not punditry.) Why no mention for example Ordinarygweilo.com or Simon World? Both of these sites are widely read and have intelligent and thoughtful comments on the government and daily life in Hong Kong.

I used to think that people in journalism were in a grand cabal to promote a political agenda. Of late I’ve changed my mind. I don’t believe that people in the media are, as a whole smart enough to do that. The reason that I think they used the “Videographers” is because they were doing essentially a type of feel good story. “Let us all identify with these poor down trodden dears and let the world know their terrible plight.” Television news likes those type stories. It would have made TVB look bad if they had found someone who had done a really good job and found a legitimate story that TVB had ignored.

I also think that if the only thing you know about blogs in Hong Kong was what you learned on that show you’d still not know very much and most of what you know is wrong.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Angry at TVB Blogger