THE BANGKOK PAPERS

I’ve had an interesting relationship with the Bangkok English language papers.

Journalist ethics? That’s funny.

I believe they write their own “letters to the editor” to support their own editorial positions. Come on, that’s funny!

They take their lead from The New York Times, which means they are anti-American. They publish Paul Krugman religiously. They believe he is the second coming, if there is such a thing in the Buddhist religion. But they never follow up and publish the retractions of his lies that so embarrass the Times.

Today The Times published an editorial about the upcoming elections in Iraq that was filled with all the negatives they could think up.

Today The Bangkok Post published an editorial on the same subject. It was well thought out, balanced and right on the money. Read it here.

I was impressed and pleased so I sent them a complimentary email. Because they had heard criticism from me in the past, they don’t like to receive my mail.

That caused the following follow-up (this is to the editor):

I’M SURE YOU KNOW

I’m sure you know that your newspaper not only will not print opposing opinions but will reject all emails that might contain them.

Do you see some irony in this?

Probably not.

Let me explain.

You will stage demonstrations to support your right to free speech but will not even accept an opposing view.

That, you see, is ironic.

Do you see it?

Probably not.

This, in case you were wondering, is sarcasm.

Please make a note.

The following is an email that I sent today and the reason for the failed delivery:

Message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns; bangkok.webstor.com

Received-From-MTA: DNS; web52211.mail.yahoo.com

Arrival-Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:48:30 -0700

Final-Recipient: RFC822; http://aa.f522.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=cartoons@bangkokpost.co.th&YY=

50603&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Remote-MTA: DNS; postwall.ksc.net.th
Diagnostic-Code: SMTP; 554 : Helo command
rejected: Access-Denied-HOST.SSR-015
Last-Attempt-Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:51:41 -0700
Forwarded Message [ Download File Save to Yahoo! Briefcase ]
Date:
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:48:26 +0100 (BST)
From:
"doa guest"
Subject:

GREAT EDITORIAL!

To:

postbag@bangkokpost.net

HTML Attachment [ Download File Save to Yahoo! Briefcase ]

GREAT EDITORIAL!

Congratulations.

Your editorial today, Iraq paints the country purple, was well thought out, balanced, and right on the money.

Way to go.

Walter Guest

Bangkok