I'd be more upset...

[cstaylor]

...if the U.S. didn't do the same damn thing... "redacted for national security reasons"... uh huh, yeah.

[cstaylor]

...in the case of the U.S., "unfriendly" reporters don't get the insider tips (some get banished from flying with the Prez altogether).

I think it's a lame idea, but it's no nastier than what the U.S. does to the media there.

[cstaylor]

...but from personal experience, a lot of stories get dropped in the U.S. For instance, I witnessed a robbery and shoot-out at a Jewelry shop in San Jose... didn't even make the local 7 o'clock news.

As long as you treat the popular media (average newspapers like the Mainichi, prime time television news, radio news) as entertainment, none of these things surprise you.

Yeah, it sucks, but as long as there's the Internet (without regulation), the news will find its way to those wanting the truth. The news in any country seems to be primarily propaganda supporting the majority view... and the less thinking required, the better (they don't want you tuning out and missing the commercials).

[cstaylor]

One of those hosers on JT's discussion board claimed there was actually a list in Japan. He said he knew this Japanese reporter who tried to get his paper to publish some of these stories (like the Canadian story, which was huge news in Canada at the time), but they just shut him down completely. He was saying there's actually active suppression of certain stories, not just passive neglect or under-reporting. And the Japanese press knows about all these stories, but they can't write about them.

Well, there may be a list, but I doubt that it's a national list... probably more like the editor's list of stories that don't make the cut. Like I said before, if the news is a for-profit entertainment business, then why publish stories that make your audience upset (and tune you out, and don't watch the commercials...)

In the case of NHK, since it's a national television channel, then of course they show the "company line", not wanting the government to cut their funding. It's like in the U.S. when PBS starts showing "It's a Beautiful Life" and other mushy stuff during the pledge campaign season...

[cstaylor]

... I'll be on the next plane back to the U.S. This new law curbing the freedom of the press is not nearly as bad as that, but it's a step in the wrong direction nonetheless.

And a link

[omae mona]

U.S. National Public Radio (NPR)'s "On The Media" program just featured a 20 minute segment about the Kisha Clubs. Quite interesting, including frank admissions that there are lists of banned stories, and there are also intentional leaks to weekly news magazines.

The program also includes a talk with former gaijin Yomiuri Shimbun crime reporter Jake Adelstein, who has visited us here on FG as user "jla" and participated in the Mob Big In Japan thread a few months ago.

On The Media: Japan's Most Exclusive Clubs

(thanks to Roy Berman at Mutantfrog for spotting this story)

[Mulboyne]