Encore! | 30.08.05
A Bangkok Post editor is deservedly fired, the staff is acting all indignant, and some international journalistic organization is crying foul. Welcome to My So-Called Country (rerun).
First the story from the Bangkok Post itself:
Chief reporter sacked over airport report
Sermsuk Kasitipradit, a chief reporter of the Bangkok Post, was dismissed yesterday by Post Publishing Plc.
His dismissal follows a Post report on Aug 9 that there were serious cracks in the runway at Suvarnabhumi airport. The Post retracted the story.
The News Editor, Chadin Thepaval, resigned last week over the incident.
Tsk, tsk, still not coming clean even now, eh? The Post’s August 9 lead story did not exactly say there were serious cracks. Headlined “US experts insist runways cracked”, it at once did much less and much more than that. Much less because the actual story (if not the headline) said an anonym said anonymous experts said there were cracks. Much more because by citing the “US experts” in excruciating detail, the story was even more credible than it would’ve been if the reporter (or editor, as we now know) had gone to the site and reported the cracks first-hand. Even I myself believed it at first.
To refresh your memory, below are some key excerpts from the original August 9 story (a copy of which can be found chez Free Republic). According to the Bangkok Post, the “US experts”:
[Were] brought in by the prime minister to give him an independent assessment
[A]rrived last Tuesday [August 2], examined the runways and have already finished their report.
[E]xamine[ed] the cracks which were not the small ones on the runway shoulders that Gen Chainant brought reporters to inspect on Sunday [August 6].
[Were] insisting that both runways at Suvarnabhumi airport need reconstruction as there are severe cracks that are large enough to sink the nose wheel of an aircraft.
[R]ecommended in their report, which will be submitted to Mr Thaksin soon, complete reconstruction since repairing them, though possible, would make the airport runways unacceptable internationally.
The “experts” also didn’t exist.
This elaborate hoax is the crux of this controversy, not whether or not there were actually serious cracks on the runways. The rumor about such cracks, including the sensational “touchdown” bit, was first gleefully circulated by the hosts of a state-run, but not state-friendly MCOT radio talk show, setting off a media frenzy that, indeed, culminated in the Post’s August 9 lead story. The rumor turned out to be false, but even if it were true, the Bangkok Post’s wild “scoop” about the “US experts” would still have been indefensible.
Of course, by the lowly standards of Thai journalism, basing an entire story on a single, anonymous, unchecked, and fraudulent source isn’t particularly heinous. Much worse is being churned out everyday. Unfortunately for the culpable editors in this case, however, the stake is rarely so high. There’s nothing like a lawsuit to grab the journalists’ attention, not to mention that of their bosses.
It also doesn’t help the editors that Post Publishing, the Bangkok Post’s publisher, has a major non-Thai boss in the form of the South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, who can’t afford to be seen to go by the standards of the Thai press (much less Thai talk radio), at least not in so explosive a case: [from today’s Bangkok Post]
David Armstrong, the deputy chief executive officer of Post Publishing, said disciplinary action was clearly warranted.
“This was not a simple mistake … The number of errors and misjudgments in the lead-up to the publication of the story was so great that firm action was both justified and necessary,” he said.
“A responsible paper cannot tolerate lapses in standards of this magnitude.”
I’m beginning to like this guy already. Best of luck to him, then, in dealing with the rest of his staff:
Bangkok Post reporters protest firing against editor
BANGKOK, Aug 29 (TNA) – More than 100 Bangkok Post reporters dressed in black to express their anger against their editor, and sympathy and support for a sacked colleague, demonstrated in the newspaper’s editorial offices today.
Acting Bangkok Post editor David Armstrong, who had fired a veteran news chief who stood by the story, refused to meet with the protesters after he had sacked Sermsuk Kasithipradit, chief of the newspaper’s military affairs and security news desk, following the reports of alleged cracks in two runways at Suvarnabhumi international airport.
Alleged cracks? Stood by the story? And this, from the most state-owned of Thailand’s state-owned media. For those of you who may think that the Thai News Agency may be trying to put the Post in a bad light by portraying it as obdurate, let me assure you that it is not that smart, nor are its readers.
Barring those crucial details, which are too inconvenient for the press-bullying angle anyway, the article is probably quite accurate. This mindless herd wore black, too, during the disappointingly short-lived Veera Prateepchaikul affaire. Mr. Armstrong should take advantage of this opportunity to fire all the black sheep of journalism.
On cue, the International Federation of Journalists (Is this a reputable organization? Its website stinks.) is already howling protests. I find the conclusion rather amusing:
The IFJ, the global organisation representing 500,000 journalists’ worldwide, supports the Bangkok Post editorial staff in their efforts to keep the two editors from losing their jobs and calls on the in house committee to come to a decision that takes into account the right of the public to correct and fast information and the nature of a newsroom.
Aye, let’s uphold the public’s right to “correct” information by retaining propagators of falsehoods. Let’s safeguard, too, the decrepit nature of the newsroom that got us here in the first place. And while we’re at it, let’s recruit another 500,000 journalists (diarists?) to sign up to have their views on a local dispute collectively articulated by this global organization. (And one wonders why journalists are left-leaning!)
Now if all goes according to the script, within days we’ll hear about a new round of press intimidation by the Thaksin government in such august publications as The Economist, the International Herald Tribune, the Asian Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and the Socialist World. Nothing unites opposite poles like Thaksin… hatred.
Then next year Khun Sermsuk, perhaps Khun Chadin as well, will get a mention in the State Department’s Human Rights Report. The Thai government will react negatively, thus proving the allegations in the minds of those who already believe them.
It’s all worth it, though. Veera, Chadin, Sermsuk,… I can’t wait for the next head to roll.
Encore! Encore! Encore!
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- Post staffer 31.08.05
I, too, like the sound of Australian acting editor David Armstrong. He seems to be dragging the Post reporters corps into the real world.
K Sermsuk was fired after an internal inquiry found his story full of errors.
Not surprising, when the reporter does not bother to check his information or his sources. Sermsuk said it wasn’t convenient to run checks on the day he was alerted to the story, as it was a holiday.According to a report in the Manager newspaper, Armstrong told a meeting of black armband-wearing journalists (the happy brigdade) that this was the first inquiry ever held into an erronous story published in the Post. That tells you something about the newspaper, doesn’t it.
The journalists demanded to know when Armstrong would find a full-time replacement. They no doubt hope a full-time (Thai) editor will allow the paper to return to its sleepy, indolent ways.
I hope for all our sakes that does not come to pass.