apathy vs ingratitude

First we're criticized as too apathetic. Then we're criticized as ingrates. There's just no winning unless you're on Their Side, is there?

I've browsed forums where the students involved were called "ingrates" for supporting oppositional politicians, and I can't help but wonder if the person who wrote that post even read the articles of the issue. It's not that we're supporting the opposition party. It's the censorship of the news. (Although, really, supporting the opposition doesn't make one an ingrate either, but what the hey.)

The role of the press is supposed to be reporting the news. When unusual things happen, that's news. It's journalism 101. Although I haven't seen the original stories that got canned, I do know that as a university-run newspaper and television program, there are supervisors in charge who would certainly have vetted the articles to ensure that it wasn't shown to be partisan to any political party or furthering any political agenda. For all intents and purposes, the article would probably have simply been a casual report on an event that occurred on campus. And quite frankly, I doubt anyone would have given the article more than a cursory glance before moving on to their upcoming test or project or term paper due.

And this is probably the greatest irony of the whole situation. If everyone had just let the article run and left the broadcast package on air, it would have just been a run-of-the-mill event which no one would have given a blessed damn five seconds after reading/seeing it. Instead, pulling the news became an even bigger story than the original story itself, even leading to a protest at Hong Lim.

But I doubt the university's stand will change. The school's media outlets are basically owned by the NTU president, and if he's already said no once, he'll probably continue to say no regardless of any protests or petitions made. As the owner of the press, he's pretty much got the final say on everything.

Still, doesn't make me any less disappointed that there would be a blackout on university-run media. And, of course, this seems to represent the protocol that would take place if any such future incidents were to happen. So does this mean that we should just stick to reporting "safe" news like "Hey, the campus has a new faculty member! How positively exciting!" and ignoring anything else that wouldn't be appreciated by the higher-ups?

What a bleak future we're painting.

And in case you're wondering what this is all about, click here, here, here and here.