Every morning of weekends I would go downstairs to get the newspaper from mail box. It was my routine job, but I seldom read it(not like I used to, I’ll tell you why later) except that I would just take a look at the headline on front page on the way up in the elevator to my apartment. I just couldn’t believe my eyes that I saw the recent scandal of a legislator’s affair was the headline of the day(11/14, Saturday) on the front page of the United Daily News(UDN), the island’s most time-honored and decent media.

UDN also made a widespread coverage on the scandal in the inner pages, and would continue reporting its sequels for several days for sure(Yes, it did). How come a respectable media like UDN would degenerate itself to the level of a tabloid? Why do all the mass media cater to satisfying people’s voyeurism, and use a lame excuse in euphemism that "Readers have right to know."? Had the New York Times or Washington Post reported Edward Kennedy’s incident the same way as UND did this time?

The media is sick. Ever since I saw those absurd scenes of TV reporters and cameramen outrageously chasing Ms Chen Hsing Yu, ex-president’s daughter, and Ms. Chen running, dodging and screaming hysterically, I have stopped watching TV news and other commentary programs full of mumbo-jumbos. I am contemptous toward Mr. Chen and his family, but I absolutely disagree with the bloodthirsty paparazzi from those culture sharks about searching and hunting their preys ruthlessly just because they are celebrities or public figures. I’ve also stopped obtaining news from papers because I even hated to let those junks pop into my eyes.
Instead, I started to look for what I wanted to know from the internet which is a reservoir of selective information you can tap into.

People in Taiwan are sick, too. The island is too small to make its
people not view things from tunnel vision, nor keep its people from being Peeping Toms. I have to say it’s we, the readers, who’ve spoiled the media. Not interested in the crucial issues such as recession, unemployment, green and cross-strait relationship, but intrigued by the room decoration of that motel? Then we will all together go to hell.

Notes: Despite that controversial incident, Edward Kennedy has been widely regarded as an eminent senator; that hapless legislator may be a great politician someday, so pay heed to his performance instead of what he was doing as a two-timer. After all, our society needs a renaissance on ethics for all of us(克已復禮, 民德歸厚矣.), but not a muckracking on him particularly.