Blogger Praises Mainstream Media

Did you ever think this was going to happen in your lifetime?  But here are two or three things that have happened around here.


First up, you are no doubt aware that I have been tracking the Nancy Kissel trial that is going on in Hong Kong.  Every day, I would check the usual suspects: The Standard, South China Morning Post, the eight online Chinese-language newspapers and then I would go to Google for AFP/AP/Reuters agency news.  Here is what I found when I Google the words "Nancy Kissel" -- the top three references are three Hong Kong blogs: SimonWorld, FlyingChair and EastSouthWestNorth.  You won't find The Standard until the next page, and you will never find the unlinkable subscription-only South China Morning Post.

Whatever happened to justice in the Internet age?  The best coverage comes from reporters like Albert Wong of The Standard and Polly Hui of South China Morning Post, who show up day in and day out in the courtroom.  Why should a bunch of bloggers banging on their keyboards in the comfort of their homes or offices soar to the top of the world's most popular seach engine?

I know that I am in no position to change Google's operating procedures, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the mainstream media workers for their work.


Next, I get a correspondence to the effect: "You must be pretty upset at the attention that The Guardian and the Washington Post are getting for their respective articles on the Chinese undercover Internet commentators and the Huaxi/Huankantou riot, since you had them covered in greater detail much earlier."

Say what?

Just so you know what this is about, I will recapitulate the details:

Here are the facts of the matter in two stages.  In the first stage, I came across articles of interest in Chinese.  Neither media source had the habit of publishing English translations of its contents.  Feeling that the English-only readers are deprived of important materials of interest, I took it upon myself to render those translations and made them available on this blog.  For one thing, I should be grateful that the copyright owners didn't sue me for violation of their rights or rendering an inadequate translation.  But just remember that I was solely motivated by a desire to bring that information to the English-reading-only world.

In the second stage, it is clear that a blog such as this one has limited circulation (to the tune of at most thousands of readers).  If that information was interesting and important, then having The Guardian or the Washington Post carry it would be the best thing ever.  So why would I be upset?  The mainstream media are able to accomplish what I would like to but could not do.

Support your mainstream media!