Why Strait Times is not as popular as fake news

Straits times started as a top drawer outfit. It had one of the best stables of intellectual firebrands in the whole of South Asia. But as the years went by, due to it’s cosy relationship with the ruling party….soon it started to shift its focus from its readers to being the trusted second fiddle of government and that was when it began haemorhage readership, talent along with credibility.

Till at some point it became a caricature that was one peg better than the Pong Pyang Post instead of a reliable purveyor of the truth.

Had the ruling party adopted a less interfering strategy with the day to day running of ST and nourished the press corps instead of trying to put a police man into every journalist head…I have no doubt today many Singaporeans and stakeholders will cont to seek out the truth via the strait times.

There would be no need to get worked up over fake news. That would be a problem for another country…another newspaper.

As most people would trust the ST since they have a long relationship based on mutual trust, respect and can even be counted to be so considerate as not to give their readership migraine attacks.

But today sadly, we have the opposite and maybe for the committee to gainfully make progress on how best to deal with the advent of fake news – they should at least recognize how the interfering hand of government was responsible for destroying the ST.

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‘I want to be clear. This is my understanding. If governments are serious and genuine about putting an end to fake news then they should nourish the idea of a free press – pound for pound a free press that imbued with a culture of publishing without fear or favor is the most efficient platform to combat fake news.

Legislation is a very inferior weapon as it operates contemporaneously – that is to say it only comes in once the damage has been done and its effectiveness as a deterrent is doubtful.

But a free press is both economical and guarantees the mileage. As that sort of strategy can only encourage the noblest and brightest minds to pursue journalism. And since it is a world class rag, everyone can only log in for the real McCoy news.

The problem really only comes in when there is no respect whatsoever for the idea of freedom of the press and when very perculiar people start abusing the press to further their own crooked goals. That is to say these bent people use the press in such a way where they regularly inflict pain on thinking folk and this is how they destroy the notion of news…..by disrespecting the idea of the truth to such an extent where they actually believe they have a right to embellish, confect and obfsucate it…and that sets in place ideal conditions for fake news to fill the void…and when fake news makes its appearance these same charlatans turn around and act as if the have absolutely no idea how they had a hand in creating this problem….in no time everything will end up being a parody.

You see I am a farmer so i see things very prosaically. That’s just another way of saying these cheap pirates cant pull the wool over my eyes. I want to be honest – i dont have many readers as I make it a point to keep a very low profile, but many world leaders read my blog…Putin and Xi are just a few to name. Many CEO’s as well. You know what I am going to do. i am going to write 2,000 word letters to all these people and share with all of them why singapore has a lousy strategy to deal with fake news!

How is that for fake news!

Just like what happened to Pravda during the hey day of the Soviet empire, on one hand the papers are talking about how wonderful it is to live in the land where it is red as far as the eye can see. But in reality most of the population just want to get out of the country where the national hobby is tunnelling, ballooning or trying their best to out run border German Shepherds.

Unless governments themselves understand how so often, they can very well be the root of the problem and even end up creating ten new problems while trying to solve one problem…then it is very hard to improve.’