For one year, can we have a new thread here, just a year and then you can delete it, on the good things about the media here, what we as consumers, readers, viewers, LIKE about the newspapers, radio stations and TV shows we watch, in either language?
Other might diss the 3 dailies and everything, and certainly there is room for criticism, but on this thread, let’s keep to the good things about the media and the interesting things we read or see there.
I actually LIKE all three newspapers and all the TV stations I get at home. Okay, I can;t understand much, but it’s fun to watch. What do you like?
Let’s list the articles in the papers that we like here. use the other thread for dissing.
I am sure this thread will not very popular or well read. No matter. Let us now praise media miracles!
Whats good about the Taiwan news is that they arent serious all the time. They always show irrelevant and pointless stories. I also like how the media loves to show people making asses of themselves.
The business section does a decent job and I like that the news section has beat reporters (such as Brian Hsu on the military and Jimmy Chuang on legal issues)
TT’s comics (particularly Boondocks) are the best and it has a crossword that is worth the price of the paper
Good book reviews, decent restaurant reviews
Overall nice layout (the lack of advertising helps!)
I like the illustrations in the feature sections
China Post
A lot of people say they have a KMT slant, but I don’t see it that much in the news section. Since they tend to translate a lot of stuff from other newspapers, they provide a pretty diverse selection of stories
Taiwan News
Some of the “forum” sections are fairly interesting
Good writing. Seldom any obvious spelling or grammatical errors.
Very well organized consistent format
Includes Chinese names alongside romanizations
Good local coverage
Terrible comic strips. Did they go with the lowest bidders?
Well organized movie and tv listings
Obvious DPP slant
China Post
Good business coverage
Better foreign news selection than TT
Good comic strips
Local stories are often riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and are sometimes very confusing
Obvious KMT/PFP slant
Disorganized TV and movie listings
Friday Prime Time section, though with Richard Hartzell’s column leaving it will suffer. And I miss Betel Nut Buzz.
Taiwan News
I’ve seen college papers that are better
In the end I subscribe to both the Taipei Times and China Post because they end up complementing each other well, and it is amusing comparing headlines on partisan issues. I think the Taipei Times has a slight edge overall.
I like the “society focus” they have on the Chinese television news. You know, son chops granny with a watermelon knife. Drunken husband puts wife onto the fridge and she dies. Truly spooky and up until quite recently amazingly graphic.
Remember the shoot outs with Chen Ching Hsing and co.? The media running up the stairs ahead of the cops, bulets flying in all directions. Then later Chen’s live interviews from the South African military attaches home, thereby tying up the lines so the cops couldn’t negotiate. Top stuff.
While I have always felt that the English and Chinese dailies are often quite slanted in their coverage of the mainland, I have to say one positive thing about them. Unlike almost all mainstream newspapers in the English speaking world, and I would imagine the rest of the developed world, the Taiwan media is willing to unequivocally call the mainland leadership what it really is: SCUM.
I didn’t pick Boondocks for obvious reasons. And Fucso Bros. was not in the budget at launch. The rest of the dailies I picked. Zippy because it was weird (probably too weird as it turns out); Meehan Streak because it was new and the guy seemed like he had some fresh ideas; Duplex cause it was new and funny; and Robot Man (Monty) cause I always enjoyed it in the Bangkok Post. For the detractor, the pickings were slim as we could not use any comic that was already in the papers here. The China Post got Dilbert out from under us, but that was our fault for not moving fast enough.
I assume you mean the international wire stories, surely not the local content written and edited internally.
I am trying to think what I like about the papers…give me some more time.
today’s TT and TN had good stories, the same one, a wire story, from SCotland, about that country’s “secret shame.” I never heard of this before and found it amazing reading. Maybe sandman, who hails from that part of the world, can explain more to us here. I know Northern ireland has its troubles, but I didn’t know Catholics and Protestants in Scotland, esp Glasgow hate each other so much as to kill each other after sports games. WOW. Is this really true? Must be, if the secret finally game out to the world today.
Did you ever see or live any of this, sandman? If this is too personal or off topic, please PM me in PMville.
jlick aLSO made a good comment about the TT; "Very well organized consistent format "
Yes, that is one thing major I like about that rag, it is consistently designed and laid out and formatted, and each day’s read flows smoothly into the next. I know how to READ that paper without even thinking. The Post is pretty consistent too, but with a different style. The NEWs however is haphazard every day, even the front page, and I never know what to expect.
Kudos to wolfman for picking zippy, i love that. not too weird. just weird enuf. for me. you?
i never do crosswords but looks like you picked a winner there too. in fact, it looks like a large [part of thje TT’s success is Wolfman’s judgment in selecting writers, featuers and layouts. Why did they fire him then? It seems to me that he was ONE of the best and they let him go?
But that is for another thread, the dissing thread. Let’s get back to what we LIKE about the local media.
Yeh, me too, I like the social focus of TV news, family stuff, murders, love scandals. that;s the real Taiwan. i want to know. inquiring minds want to know.
Hang on, you were in charge of the crossword and the comics!? Which one of the Lau/wrences was cracking the whip over you?
Dilbert has become ho-hum, so no loss there. But the lineup in the TT is solid – “fresh” and “new” as you describe some of the strips. And Zippy about once a week has enough edge to make me laugh out loud. But not as much edge as Boondocks, especially this strip from a few days ago. But as much as I like Boondocks, I don’t see it as very appropriate for a Taiwan newspaper.
Hakka sonic wrote: "Hang on, Wolfman, you were in charge of the crossword and the comics. Which one of the Lau/wrences was cracking the whip over you? "
HS, Wolfie was in charge of everything apparently, he probably hired the two Laurences too, if you ask him about it. In fact, he would probably tell you that he “founded” the TT long before it ever appeared on news stands. He is just being modest.
But ye gotta admit, anyone who admits he was fired because “I was a pill” is our kind of guy. A true wit, maybe a twit now and then, but the real McCoy. At least, he is honest enough to tell it like it is. I admire that about Wolfman. He is one of the clearest sighted people on this island, maybe because he doesn’t give a shit anymore. Funny man!
The Friday editions are the only ones worth looking forward to, for all three newspapers in varying degrees.
Otherwise, the Taipei Times is well designed, looks clean, airy, neat. The other papers are too inky and old-fashioned.
What I resent is that all three papers have to ram their political ideology down the reader’s throat. Present the facts and let the reader form his own opinion, that’s how I want my media. OK, all media have some liberal or conservative bias to some extent, but these three are really exaggerating.
As to the other media: too much gossip, repetition, and on TV, too many drunks, murderers, whiners, and how I hate those meaningless bits at the end of each hour where they show some fish or fashion show or some festival from some country they never bother to explain.
Does anybody here every listen to Taiwan radio, and I mean Chinese-language radio? What kind of shows to they have, talk shows, interesting stuff or schlock? I heard UFO and NEWS 98 are good. But I never listen, except when the girlfriend is “studying” with the radio on in the background. Because we live near Keelung, the reception not so good.
FM 96, BCC “The Wave”
A good mix of Western, Chinese and Japanese tunes. The DJs don’t ramble like ICRT. I listen to this quite a lot. I don’t know what the most popular station is, but I’d guess it would be this one.
Here is their Web site: http://www.bcc.com.tw/
…and the horoscope and I was successful in getting News of the Weird too. The color comics were not my choices.
I wanted to get Life in Hell by Matt Groening, but it was weekly and very expensive.
And Formosa, don’t make me out to be some egomaniac. On the seventh day I rested.
