[quote]Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) Typhoon Aere, which barreled through northern Taiwan from Tuesday to Wednesday, had killed 23 people and left five others unaccounted for as of Thursday.
The typhoon also took a heavy toll on the island’s agriculture, causing damage worth about NT$475.44 million (US$14 million) , according to the Central Prevention and Reliev Center and the Council of Agriculture.[/quote]
Since certain members of this forum bitch and rant about the Taipei Times’ shoddy editing, I want to start a new thread on the incompetent editing at the Central News Agency. Just for fun, I picked the lead and second paragraph in a lead story found at the CNA website this morning. See if you can spot the mistakes here. Take a hack at it Wolfie. I welcome all other disgrunted copyeditors to join in.
Who cares, cunning? To the best of my knowledge, the CNA didn’t/doesn’t make a big deal out of itself about how it is going to be, or is, a world-class paper. The CNA’s never had the hype that the Taipei Times had when it opened, and the CNA does not desperately cling to some deisgn awards it won, a well the Taipei Times constantly dips into, but really has nothing to do with quality news. The CNA, or any of the other papers, have never come close to the hype and let’s pat ourselves on the back BS that the Times resonates.
I edited that story. Ask me if I give a fuck. Edit it if you want. Knock yourself out – but play fair. Do 30 other stories first and then do this one in about 2.5 minutes.
The point here is not to subvert CNA’s role as a government mouthpiece organ. My point is that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Wuf, wuf.
People who argue about the editing of any of the papers (be it CNA or the Times or anything else) to me really have a minor case of Taiwaneseitis (the disease of picking up the locals’ way of “thinking” [note: “thinking” in quotes]). It is a concern for form over substance.
What is really wrong with the Times/Post/News (and I am leaving CNA out of it because I know nothing about the accuracy of their news items) is their grossly inaccurate/highly biased/overall ignorant “reporting” [note: “reporting” in quotes, since I did not go to journalism school I am not sure if half assed rewriting of press releases counts as “reporting” or not].
In the three areas I have first hand knowledge of (human rights/general legal changes/criminal justice) the papers’ batting average for basic accuracy is about .200 which maybe okay for college baseball but ain’t too good for a “news source” although I will admit the english language rags are not that far behind the local language rags.
The problem is not the editing or the typos the problem is the basic shit articles. The editing and the typos are just icing on the cake.
I worked as a CNA copy editor for about six months in the late 90s. They let me write a few stories, too. That gig ended when I complained about quality issues to the English wire service section head, and when he didn’t listen or pass along my concerns, I wrote a letter to the CNA president (or she zhang, or whatever his title is). That got me a meeting with the guy in between, the news chief of the Chinese and English wire services, who chewed me out that I should never complain about quality of CNA articles or the workflow to anyone above the section head (ie, the first guy who didn’t give a fuck).
At that point I realized that 90% of the CNA sheeple didn’t care about the news, journalism ethics, or anything beyond their salary and new years bonus. Everyone over 35 in that office had come of age in the martial law era and couldn’t be taught or shamed into doing a better job of reporting or translating.
Puny Lingas actually has no idea what he is talking about, but I forgive him.
My understanding is that the Central News Agency has its weaknesses, but they are apparently not such that the Taipei Times has canceled its subscription to its service, nor has it stopped publishing CNA articles.
I don’t read all the stories on CNA, but I feel pretty confident that the copy is basically solid. CNA suffers, if you will, of being a bit too general in its coverage. It is sort of the Reader’s Digest of Taiwan news. A good thing for some, a bad thing for others. The Taipei Times, for all its problems, does cover the local news better than the English side of CNA.
But what is Puny Lingas’ point with this thread? That the Taipei Times sucks and makes egregious errors, often throughout a single story, but so does the Central News Agency? It’s possible, I suppose. When this thread has several thousand replies with hundreds of examples then we will know for sure.
As an editor friend of mine told me, he wishes people would point out errors
If CNA is not a government mouthpiece anymore, then why is its editorial tone so pro-government in its views? I just browsed the politics headlines, and didn’t find one article that questions or criticizes Chen, the government, or government policy. This is what we get instead:
[quote=“cna”]ROC-FUNDED MEDICAL FACILITY INAUGURATED IN PANAMA
PREMIER DELIGHTED BY PASSAGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM PROPOSALS
PRESIDENT CHEN INSPECTS DISASTER CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS
TAIWAN LOVES PEACE: FOREIGN MINISTER
1964 POSTERS SIGNIFY TAIWAN’S LONG PURSUIT OF SEPARATE IDENTITY: YU[/quote]
Doesn’t seem much different than what they were doing in 1996 … then they were mouthpieces for Lee and the the Lee faction of the KMT, now it’s Chen and the DPP.
I think if you look, there are plenty of protest pieces and pro-blue stuff. It is not without some inclination, I would admit that, but no one tells it what to write or what should be spun.
Hey, the government comes out and says a bunch of self-flattering shit, CNA, TT and the rest report it. Granted, reporters in Taiwan need to figure out what picking up the phone and getting reaction means, but this is common to all media here.
I am not defending CNA completely, but a Xinhua it is not.
Brian: thanks for pointing out that journalism is more than dotting the Is and crossing the Ts. Like a lot of people I pine for the days when one can’t wait to get a copy of the TT in the morning. Now I’ll have to content myself with the CNA.
Because each bignose is only here for 4 hours per day. So, all the typos and mistakes you see are MINE, see? And frankly, Kinda Lingers, I don’t give a flying monkey’s sphincter what you think about them. Because I’m a slacker and proud of it. There are far, far more important things for me to be concerned about.
Linguist, have you ever done any kind of editing work?
If not, shut the fuck up until you’ve been on the other side. It’s not as easy as you seem to think it is. Granted, the TT, CNA, China Post, et al do seem more mistake-prone than they should be, but still, until you’ve actually tried doing it, wipe your crying eyes and go see if mommy’ll change your dirty diaper.
As to the topic of quality and government editing let me tell a true story that happened to me last week. Every year for about the last 5 years I have edited a yearly report for one of the local government agencies (to protect the innocent and my chances of getting the contract next year, the exact name of the agency will remain nameless.).
Now let me set the stage; in the past they had paid fairly handsomely but this year they cut the edit fee by over half, yes this year I was working for about 45% of what the previous years’ fee had been. The Big Boss and I are chatting about other things but we drift around to this year’s report.
Big Boss: I am not so happy with this year’s editing. It is not as good as before.
Me: I am not so happy with this year’s fee. It is not as good as before. (no shit, no lie, told him that to his face)
Big Boss: (no answer, simply stares at report)
Me: (the natural educator in me coming out) You civil servants may forget this, but for people like me who do piece work the formula is simple; Pay=Quality and an intelligent Tai Da grad like yourself can derive from that formula that lower pay will result in lower quality; there is a clear interrelationship between time, money and quality.
Big Boss: yeah, yeah, I know, moving on
“Journalism” in Taiwan consists of recording what somebody important said, transcribing it, and then putting in “he said”, “said Mr X” before and after the bits transcribed. Done.
[quote=“hexuan”]You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
“Journalism” in Taiwan consists of recording what somebody important said, transcribing it, and then putting in “he said”, “said Mr X” before and after the bits transcribed. Done.[/quote]
They can also add words to describe the way it was said. Words like “jocularizingly,” which I almost left in a story today for the delectation of Kinder Listless, until I remembered that I don’t give a toss.
You’re welcome. I thought I’d better keep the level down at a similar one at which the thread was started. We wouldn’t want you to feel left out of your own thread.
