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Before I show you the open letter, please let me say thank you to Gordon Duguid. You seem to know a situation a lots better than CNN (one of the biggest biased media in the world?)
US ‘Deeply Deplores’ Thai Violence, Casualties
We are encouraged by the actions of the Red Shirt leaders who have surrendered to law enforcement agencies, and support their call to supporters to return home peacefully,” said Gordon Duguid. “However, we are deeply concerned that Red Shirt supporters have engaged in arson, targeting the electricity infrastructure and media outlets, and have attacked individual journalists. We condemn such behavior and call on UDD [Red Shirt] leaders and affiliated opposition politicians to urge their supporters to stop such acts.
US State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid
Below is the open letter (with many supporting evidences) from one Thai lady to CNN, the biased international news agency.
Napas Na Pombejra, B.A., LL.B. (Lond.)
Dear Sirs/Madams,
Recently, CNN Thailand Correspondents Dan Rivers and Sarah Snider have made me seriously reconsider your agency as a source for reliable and accurate unbiased news. As of this writing, over thousands of CNN’s viewers have already begun to question the accuracy and dependability of its reporting as regards events in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, etc., in addition to Bangkok.
As a first-rate global news agency, CNN has an inherent professional duty to deliver all sides of the truth to the global public who have faithfully and sincerely placed their trust and reliance in you. Your news network, by its longtime transnational presence and extensive reach, has been put in a position of trust and care; CNN’s journalists, reporters, and researchers have a collective responsibility to follow the journalist’s code and ethics to deliver and present facts from all facets of the story, not merely one-sided, shallow and sensational half-truths. The magnitude of harm or potential extent of damage that erroneous and fallacious news reporting can cause to (and exacerbate), not only a country’s internal state of affairs, economic well-being, and general international perception, but also the real lives and livelihood of the innocent and voiceless people of that nation, is enormous. CNN should not negligently discard its duty of care to the international populace by reporting single-sided or unverified facts and distorted truths drawn from superficial research, or display/distribute biased images which capture only one side of the actual event.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider have NOT done their best under these life-threatening circumstances because many other foreign correspondents have done better. All of Mr. Rivers and Ms. Sniders’ quotes and statements seem to have been solely taken from the anti-government protest leaders or their followers/sympathizers. Yet, all details about the government’s position have come from secondary resources. No direct interviews with government officials have been shown; no interviews or witness statements from ordinary Bangkok residents or civilians unaffiliated with the protesters, particularly those who have been harassed by or suffered at the hands of the protesters, have been circulated.
Why the discrepancy in source of information? Why the failure to report all of the government’s previous numerous attempts to negotiate or invitations for protesters to go home? Why no broadcasts shown of the myriad ways the red protesters have terrorized and harmed innocent civilians by burning their shops, enclosing burning tyres around apartment buildings, shooting glass marbles at civilians from high altitudes, attacking civilians in their cars, and worst of all, obstructing paramedics and ambulances carrying civilians injured by M79 grenade blasts during the Silom incident of April 24, 2010, thereby resulting in the sole civilian casualty? The entire timeline of events that have forced the government to take this difficult stance has been hugely and callously ignored in deference to the red ‘underdogs’.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider’s choice of sensational vocabulary and terminology in every newscast or news report, and choice of images to broadcast, has resulted in law-abiding soldiers and the heavily-pressured Thai government being painted in a negative, harsh, and oppressive light, whereas the genuinely violent and law-breaking arm of the anti-government protesters – who are directly responsible for overt acts of aggression not only against armed soldiers but also against helpless, unarmed civilians and law-abiding apolitical residents of this once blooming metropolis (and whose actions under American law would by now be classified as terrorist activities) – are portrayed as righteous freedom fighters deserving of worldwide sympathy and support. This has mislead the various international Human Rights watchdogs to believe the Thai government are sending trigger-happy soldiers out to ruthlessly murder unarmed civilians without just cause.
As a current resident of “war zone” Bangkok who has experienced the effect of the Red protests first hand and is living in a state of constant terror and anxiety as to whether her family, friends, and home would get bombed or attacked by the hardcore anti-government vigilantes/paramilitary forces – I appeal to CNN’s professional integrity to critically investigate and scrutinize the misinformed news reporting of your above-named correspondents. If they are incapable of obtaining genuine, authentic facts from any other source except the Red Protest leaders and red-sympathizing Thai translators or acquaintances, or from fellow non-Thai-speaking journalists who are similarly ignorant of Thai language, culture, history, and society, then perhaps CNN should consider reassigning field correspondents to Thailand.
I implore and urge you to please take serious action to correct or reverse the grave injustice that has been done to the Thai nation, her government, and the majority of law-abiding Thai citizens and expatriate residents by having endorsed and widely circulated poorly researched and misrepresented news coverage of the current ongoing political unrest and escalating violence in Thailand.
Copies of this open letter have also been distributed to other local as well as international news media and social networks for public information. Please feel free to contact me further should you require any additional concrete and reputable evidence in substantiation and corroboration of my complaints and claims stated hereinabove.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,Napas Na Pombejra, B.A., LL.B. (Lond.)
Bangkok, Thailand
May 17, 2010Addendum
Enclosed herewith for your attention and information some examples of other quality international news bulletins by respectable foreign journalists so you may assess at your leisure the sub-par quality and misleading nature of Mr. Rivers and Ms. Sniders’ journalism:
1. New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/world/asia/16thai.html
2. Fox News/Associated Press:
(i) http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/16/chaos-continues-thailand-govt-rejects-talks-continues-crackdown-killed/
(ii) http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/17/thai-red-shirt-general-dies-chaos-continues/
3. Global Post: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/100514/thailand-protests-bangkok
4. NHK: http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/17_15.html
5. Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2010/04/2010423171540981286.html
6. Deutsche Welle (English media in Germany):
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5575254,00.html
7. Local English daily newspaper’s chronology of events on Day 3 of “War in Bangkok”:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/05/17/politics/What-went-down-30129533.htmlYoutube Videos, images, articles showing what CNN has failed to circulate:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_xg0l6-oHY
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rGqZDvRa_U
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3tfBBSVJdU&feature=player_embedded
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=4hmSPbugDAA&feature=related
5.
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=XRi6m7QG06M&feature=related
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Aws3ZMXzNjs&feature=related
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=giuEOQ62n6E&feature=related
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=yy3a73Y6fBg&feature=related
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLuffqnszIY
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqnXV2ltUlE
12. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=LXMmQReCKVg&feature=related
13. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=FWN7zYV7_Bo&feature=related
14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=005jYjmEAVE
15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioOrreuQ94c
16. http://tweetphoto.com/22647514
17. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/37395/put-an-end-to-this-rebellion?awesm=fbshare.me_AMdZh
18. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=333752&id=118996168116475
19. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=El-zPySi9cQ&feature=related
20. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=KzcVcHokaVM&feature=related
21. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agLBIWDKWkI
22. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=34hSEPOC71g&feature=related
23. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=kuAQyc5d1HY&feature=related
24. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Pv9Hpfb6gNE&feature=related
25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7yAVunxw1g&feature=player_embedded
26. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=328250&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=122351831122683&aid=-1&id=1785951766
27. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5959829&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=122351831122683&aid=-1&id=506055218
28. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5960844&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=122351831122683&aid=-1&id=506055218
29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8684405.stm
30. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=428905841067&ref=mf
From this facebook page (Thai translation is here)
PS. That the last name of this lady “Na Pombejra” is exactly the same as Thaksin’s ex wife, Ms. Pojjamarn Na Pombejra
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Well written and said. Someone needs to put this in the limelight to show what’s really going on. Thank you for posting your open letter. Had I not read it, I would have never known how biased CNN can be. I will not be watching CNN anymore.
Warm Regards,
Minnie Thephasdin
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please refer to
http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/is-cnn-s-coverage-really-biased
for a discussion of the claims of imbalance in CNN reporting made in this letter
seems this letter has its own biasses
of course everyone should take their news from multiple sources but it seems perhaps CNN is worth watching after all as a reasonable source
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David Brown, thank you for visiting my blog.. You seem to be one of the loyal visitor here.
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http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2905056.htm
“There is one final element that must be mentioned. Most are not even aware of it. But there is, in the western mindset, a deeply ingrained sense of the moral superiority of western culture which carries with it the idea that a third world country must by its very nature be ruled by despots, oppress peasants, and kill and torture people. Most westerners become very insulted when this is pointed out to them because our deepest prejudices are always those of which we are least aware. I believe that there is a streak of this crypto-racism in some of the reportage we are seeing in the west. It is because of this that Baghdad, Yangon, and Bangkok are being treated as the same thing. We all look alike.”
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Foreign Ministry’s letter to CNN: Shallow and insensitive reporting
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/ThaiTalk/2010/05/23/entry-1
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Thanks for writing this letter!
Please note though, FOX NEWS is as equally biased as CNN. They may have done some good coverage of what has happened in Thailand recently — but FOX NEWS is an awful news source.
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