Here is the quintessential example of a people betrayed through the corruption of the very news media that ought to be championing their causes. A Public Betrayed exposes deceptions, lies, and abuses of power in Japan that have led to such profound degrees of misunderstanding, confusion, and suffering that they have inspired the phrase "media atrocities." Key examples include:
- Vilifying innocent victims of terrorist attacks
- Denying the Holocaust and supporting anti-Semitism
- Smearing a prominent Buddhist leader
- Whitewashing and denying one of history's worst war crimes, the Nanjing Massacre
- Defaming Second World War Japanese military sex slaves or "comfort women"

Mulboyne wrote:Excerpt from book & interviews on Japan Media Review Site HERE

A Public Betrayed wrote:A case in point is a cover story about the insider-trading scandal involving American do-it-yourself icon Martha Stewart. Soon after the story broke in the summer of 2002, both the U.S. and Japanese editions of Newsweek carried the same cover story on the subject. The article was originally written in English and then translated into Japanese. Both editions of the magazine featured the same photograph of Stewart on their covers. The cover of the U.S. edition offered the words "Martha's Mess" below Stewart's photo, with the words "An Inside Trading Scandal Tarnishes The Queen Of Perfection" next to her image. However, Takeda and his editorial team in Japan felt that this headline was just too weak for the Japanese magazine market. As a result, the Japanese edition used the more inflammatory language: "Martha Stewart: Corrupt Queen" and "The Behind-The-Scenes Suspicions Of The Charismatic Housewife. The Endless Greed Of Wall Street"....
....[it's] naive to suppose that the millions who read the headlines just dismiss them. Studies indicate that Japanese tend to put far more faith in what they read than do Westerners. Media professor and author Kenichi Asano states it simply: "People say that they don't believe Japanese weekly newsmagazines, but they do. It's impossible to read them or their headlines all over the trains and in ads and to simply assume that everything is false. It's only natural to believe that there is truth to things that are published so widely by national publishing companies."

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A Public Betrayed
Uncovering the worst about the institution in Japan designed to serve and inform the populace—with valuable lessons for the U.S.

In Japan, however, the more inflammatory headlines presumably reached many more people than did the actual magazine. Many of those who read the headlines on the advertisements simply did not have the benefit of being in the physical proximity of a magazine and, by extension, had a much smaller chance of reading the actual article associated with those headlines. Given that this case involved Newsweek, a "reputable" magazine that is so comparatively tame that it cannot accurately be categorized as a Japanese "weekly," it is easy to imagine how overblown the headlines on domestic Japanese newsmagazines can be.

Mulboyne wrote:I must admit that the "problem" of misleading weekly mag advertising ranks pretty low when compared with the actual journalism. If the book could show that headlines routinely misled the public and helped create or reinforce false beliefs then that would be a different.
I haven't read the book either although I'll probably check it out and post later.
Nice bit of background on the publisher, Kuang_Grade.

Here is the quintessential example of a people betrayed through the corruption of the very news media that ought to be championing their causes. A Public Betrayed exposes deceptions, lies, and abuses of power in Japan that have led to such profound degrees of misunderstanding, confusion, and suffering that they have inspired the phrase "media atrocities." Key examples include:
- Vilifying innocent victims of terrorist attacks
- Denying the Holocaust and supporting anti-Semitism
- Smearing a prominent Buddhist leader
- Whitewashing and denying one of history's worst war crimes, the Nanjing Massacre
- Defaming Second World War Japanese military sex slaves or "comfort women"

Key examples include:
- Vilifying innocent victims of terrorist attacks
- Denying the Holocaust and supporting anti-Semitism
- Smearing a prominent Buddhist leader
- Whitewashing and denying one of history's worst war crimes, the Nanjing Massacre
- Defaming Second World War Japanese military sex slaves or "comfort women"

Steve Jesus is buried in Aomori prefecture

Steve Bildermann wrote:Not to forget...

- Elvis secretly living in Tokyo Suburb
- Jesus buried in Ibaraki Prefecture
- Princess Diana's hot love affair with top Japanese politician

All good stuff

Shukan Shincho (12/16) grinds its molars at a strange book launched last summer by a right-wing American publisher that attacks Shukan Shincho "as a threat to democracy.

From Mr Yu Iguchi.
Sir, As a resident of Japan, I agree with Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe ("Japan's shackled press weakens the world", April 6) that the Japanese press is poor. That is one of the reasons I subscribe to the FT.
However, I disagree with the assertion that the Japanese government has used NHK and other local media to bolster its own legitimacy. That view is naive and misleading. Far from bolstering the government, some media strongly attack it, so much so that sometimes they are accused of being a mouthpiece of foreign governments. It is simply not correct to say that Japanese media slavishly follow the government line.
Mr Gamble and Mr Watanabe seem to be suggesting that Japan is akin to a communist state in which the media are under strict control and information is routinely vetted. That is at odds with the true picture: a Japan where we can enjoy freedom of speech and can talk critically about Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister, or anyone else. Sometimes the press is so free that it can become intrusive and annoying but that is another matter.