Happy new year to anyone who is waiting on another post, I’ve been busy with a new project and had to set this aside for a few months, but new year always rejuvenates me, well, by the 5th am generally recovered from the excess and motivated, that lasts till February.
Anyway, to kick off the new year, I found a wee post in today’s SCMP, that had me reflecting on how strange the media is when it gets on it’s high horse. A small post, five lines, no more, under China News, headlined “Road Victim, 5, thrown in well. In this case a guy in Wudo county ran over a kid while reversing, as it turns out the kid only had a head injury, but the driver picked him up, drove to a well, knocked him out with a blow to the head and dumped him in the well to drown. Just another day in China’s morally bankrupt, avaricious society. (In case you don’t know, the popular thinking in China is; you only pay once for an accident if the party is dead, however, if injured it gets too expensive, ergo…)
The strange question here is why no uproar similar to the recent soul searching regarding the death of two year old YU YU, run over twice by two different drivers and eventually picked up by a street cleaner, but died in hospital.
Differences? 2 year old Vs 5 year old. A girl vs a boy. One captured on video, the other not? Do these differences justify one becoming a cause celebre, whilst the other is nary a footnote in the events of the day?
Not really, the truth is that the press jumped on the YU YU bandwagon and rode it for as long as they could and then they dump the issue when they believe it is spent.
It reaffirms the old adage: “The press may not tell you what to think, but for sure, they tell you what you should be thinking about.”
In the earlier case YU YU was new news, now the issue is old hat.
Sucks for the five year old dead kid’s parents huh!
One Comment
“The press may not tell you what to think, but for sure, they tell you what you should be thinking about.” Rightfully said
I thoroughly enjoyed your post. Good luck to you.