Wicked witch of the Street takes a fall
The arrest of Rebekah Brooks, editor of the News of the World (failed) in the phone-hacking scandal, has raised questions of the “political-media complex” in British society. It is a familiar theme for Malaysian readers and viewers: the Malaysian media is not merely enmeshed in the political machine, it is a vital cog of that machine. It is an inevitable result of being politically owned.
The fall of the News of the World and the several arrests that have taken place point to the evils of media ownership being concentrated in a few hands, whether politicians or businessmen.
Rupert Murdoch’s News International controls the two best-selling tabloids, The Sun and the News of the World at the lower end of the market, and The Times and the Sunday Times at the ‘quality’ end. In addition Murdoch’s dominating presence extends to British satellite broadcasting, through the Sky channel.
RUPERT MURDOCH
Murdoch is to the UK what Media Prima is to Malaysia, a dominating force in newspapers and television, equally able to flout convention and principles, secure in the belief (until now) that they were beyond question and enjoyed near immunity, because of their reach and their clout.
There is one other similarity: the cosy and snug relationship between the News of the World and the police is reflected in the Malaysian newspapers’ toadying to the Home Ministry in their coverage of Bersih, particularly in bending over backwards to cast the police in a positive light and to cast Bersih rally-goers as evil trouble-makers.
But the evil lies in concentrated ownership, whether political owners or ruthless, monopoly-minded business owners with a political agenda. And the evil lies in the perverted journalism that is a result of toadying to political owners.
Mr Murdoch clearly stated on Saturday in his full-page apology a basic principle most people would readily accept: that a free and open press must be a positive force in society. But his racy tabloids were not. And his racy journalists were not.
Sadly, neither are much of Malaysia’s politically-controlled and politically-owned newspapers and journalists.
Nothing positive about the coverage here, except to play up to the force
uppercaise 
In our Malaysian case, first of all, people doubt the authenticity of the picture shown on cover of NST. Assuming it was genuine, some said he was just throwing back a cannister back at the police. But to me, more important was why such a picture out of so many others was chosen to be displayed prominently if not for a certain purpose, which we most of us knew why. To carry on with such brash display of misrepresentation is an insult to our intelligence.
This was a long time coming. It’s inconceivable that she didn’t know how those journalists had come up with the information when she was the editor.
Gutter NST ! Sampah NST!
ASS-T !!!