Thursday 29 May 2008

What is news? 什麼才是新聞?



Former President Chen Shui-bian's daughter, Chen Hsing-yu was all over the news again today. Paparazzi love to follow and provoke her, because she easily loses control and will curse people, shout in high octaves or both. She did both today. I thought she was going to pop a blood vessel in her head today. Whew. Imagine having to listen to this once every hour all day today...

前總統陳水扁的女兒陳幸妤
今天不斷的在電視上出現。
狗仔很愛跟她,惹她,
因為她容易失控,
高分貝的破口大罵。
整天每個小時看這新聞的人,
也好可憐。



Yesterday, gas prices went up again. Today, I went to my boss and asked her, with oil prices on the up and up, shrinking everyone's disposable income and making life very difficult for many, many people, shouldn't the government be doing more than temporarily subsidizing taxis and buses? For example, import taxes on hybrid cars are ridiculously high. A Toyota Prius in the US starts at USD 21.500, but in Taiwan, it starts at USD 38.66. Shouldn't that tax be lowered or abolished so that more people can will cars less dependent on gas and therefore save money? There are no bicycles lanes in the cities. Shouldn't they be effectively made so that people can safely commute via bicycles? The Taipei metro does not allow bicycles on their trains except during weekends in certain stations and in certain trains. Folding bikes are required to be put into carrying bags if they want to be let in the station. Shouldn't these rules be changed so more people will use the metro and their bikes to commute? The Kaohsiung metro just introduced a TWD 5.000 (USD 164) folding bike that can be taken into the station at any time. Shouldn't the same policy be implemented elsewhere, and bicycle purchases be subsidized? Right now, the government is only giving temporary solutions to a long-term problem. I pointed this out to my boss, but she was uninterested.

昨天油價又漲了。
今天我問我上司,
政府是不是該多做點事
讓人民好過些,
不是暫時補貼計程車,客運等?
像是豐田的油電混合車,
進口關稅高得不得了,
美國一台台幣65萬六,
台灣一台118萬。
政府是不是該降稅,
讓多點人買油電混合車,省油錢?
都市裡沒有腳踏車車道,
政府是不是要趕快有效設置
腳踏車車道,讓更多人能夠安全
騎腳踏車通學,通勤?
台北捷運只有假日,部份車站,
部份車廂能帶腳踏車進去,
平日摺疊式腳踏車一定要
裝袋子才能帶進去,
這規定是不是該改變,
讓更多人會用捷運和腳踏車來當
替代交通工具?
高雄捷運剛推出一台五千塊的
摺疊式腳踏車,也開放隨時帶進去。
其他地方,公共交通是不是也該
這樣做,加上補貼或提供便宜腳踏車?
現在政府只治標不治本,
我跟上司說,她沒興趣。



Cancer has been the number one cause of death in Taiwan for the past 27 years. More and more young people are getting cancer. Last week, high school entrance exams were held. We're seeing increasing numbers of kids with cancer and rare diseases at these exams. Before, patients at cancer centers were mostly old people. Now the proportion is changing. National Taiwan University's hospital is opening a pediatric cancer center. These signs are alarming. People in Taiwan are getting sick. The government boasts that more and more cancer patients are getting better because cancer treatment in Taiwan is getting more and more advanced. Why are they only treating the sick and not preventing the healthy from getting sick? Six thousand Taiwanese women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. That's just first diagnosis and breast cancer. Kevin half joked that people don't need to worry about missiles flying into Taiwan, we're going to kill ourselves with cancer and other diseases first. There is a deathly serious problem with preventative medicine policy in Taiwan. I told this to my boss, but she was uninterested.

癌症是27年來台灣十大死因榜首,
現在越來越多年輕人也在得癌症了。
上週末考基測,看到越來越多特考生了,
不是癌症就是罕病。
以前醫院腫瘤科外面排隊是
戴著口罩,臉上充滿皺紋的老人比較多,
現在這比例,戴著毛線帽,
時尚的年輕人越來越重了。
台大兒童醫院即將開幕,
裡頭還有兒童腫瘤科。
這些現象好恐怖。
台灣人生病了。
政府說台灣醫療好厲害,
癌症治療讓更多人活更久,
但是為什麼只故著治療,
然後讓健健康康的人生病呢?
光是乳癌,每年就有六千位女性被診斷。
Kevin半開玩笑說,飛彈不用過來,
台灣人會先生病死光。
我跟上司講預防醫療,
全民健康出了大問題,
但她沒興趣。

Is this not news? Is it not the responsibility of media to keep the government in check? Apparently not. I guess news is Chen Hsing-yu cursing in octaves at reporters, and our responsibility is bringing the former president's first daughter's cursing to the public.

這不是新聞嗎?
媒體責任不是監督政府嗎?
看來不是喔。
看來陳幸妤對著記者抓狂猛罵才是新聞,
把這種畫面不斷的播放給大家看才是媒體責任。

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know the full context and don't understand all the Chinese but that looks like simple harassment of Chen Hsing-yu.
I am seldom critical of things here in Taiwan. But how the media can publicly harass and humiliate someone like that without facing criminal charges is shameful of Taiwan's media, legal and political systems.

Unknown said...

Hi Stephen,

I agree with you. However, it's a big problem in other countries as well. Remember Princess Diana?

MJ

Unknown said...

我非常關心台灣的媒體,雖然國外也有狗仔隊,可是我還是覺得台灣的記者太過分了。怎麼改善呢?其實, 要等到台灣人不想看媒體挑釁陳幸妤,而想看妳所提的那種有價值的新聞。

Betsy C. said...

I couldn't agree with you more. You can't help but wonder why it's so difficult to break the vicious cycle of media providing trash because it attracts higher ratings, while world politics and international news generate almost no interest.

Unknown said...

Hi JCR,

我當初認為台灣記者大多數不負責任,素質差,又笨又沒良心的人。那我就用功一點,做一些優良新聞,這樣就可以和別人不一樣,馬上就被人家說 “恩,這翁郁容真是個好記者。“

踏入台灣的新聞台三年,我發現事實和我想像的差多了!記者跑這些垃圾新聞,都是長官派的。記者也不想做這樣的新聞,但是怎麼辦?領人家薪水就得執行。再好的idea也沒用。長官也是為了領薪水,看收視率,下令做這些阿哩不咑的垃圾。看起來他們也很無奈。看來看去,好像沒人敢嘗試新的做法,或許因為競爭就是太激烈,利潤太薄弱,沒有buffer,沒有空間。

我想做優良新聞,長官不讓我做,我心裡罵他們是社會的亂象,他們心裡罵我是收視率殺手。怎麼辦呢?

或許很慘忍,但是我希望新聞台該倒的趕快倒,該合併的趕快合併,讓環境平衡一點,讓新聞製作恢復正常,讓大家能夠不用再一邊吃飯,一邊罵記者、罵主播。

Unknown said...

Hi Betsy,

Some of what's on TV news in Taiwan certainly is "trash." I don't know if my conscience will allow me to last until news returns to normal in Taiwan. Sigh.

Unknown said...

Thumbs up for this blog entry :)

Unknown said...

Thank you, John! Ranting actually turns out OK sometimes, I guess. :)

Anonymous said...

郭台銘是不是把非凡新聞台買下來了嗎?一小時的新聞,他演了30分鐘,另10分鐘是介紹他要娶的人,他結婚比電腦展的新聞還長,連電腦展受訪者都要對郭的婚禮發表一下意見,這是甚麼新聞阿,世紀婚禮勒,有良心的話把婚禮的錢捐出來給小朋友吃營養午餐,麻煩善心記者將小市民的心聲送出去啦!http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/080529/2/1072v.html

Anonymous said...

關於新聞製作,
深度是記者的素養,
精緻度是電視台長官的責任

長官審稿是主業,罵人是副業
通常他們副業都做得比主業好

加油,別放棄!

Unknown said...

謝謝Amy和唐德的鼓勵,我會加油的。
還有,我想說,妳講得好有道理 and 罵得好!