end of Wai Wai on Mainichi website???

[Jack]

It is something completely else for the Mainichi to take work that has been going on for years and then act like this someone on staff created Pulitzer prize winning piece about some 8 year old heroin addict that turned out to be completely made up ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Cooke ) and tosses the entire staff under a bus while higher ups (whose job was supposedly to keep their eyes open for problems) just stand around talking about how shocked they are about this and then seek to toss all of the previous work down an internet memory hole Orwell style.

If they are this lackluster in their support of their own product (even if reprinted from somewhere else), I can only imagine how completely feeble their overall reporting is. If they clearly don't trust their staff, why should anyone trust anything they publish.

The paper is not necessarily throwing the staff under the bus. If Wai Wai has been cancelled then all affected staff would be out of work, wouldn't they? Unless they can be re-assigned but I presume in this case there is nowhere else to re-assign them to. By the way, there are scapegoats in every situation. I can think of many sports teams that have ditched their coach or GM for no other reasons than to appear like they are vresponding to some incident. politicians do it all the time and so do businesses.

[GomiGirl]

The paper is not necessarily throwing the staff under the bus. If Wai Wai has been cancelled then all affected staff would be out of work, wouldn't they? Unless they can be re-assigned but I presume in this case there is nowhere else to re-assign them to. By the way, there are scapegoats in every situation. I can think of many sports teams that have ditched their coach or GM for no other reasons than to appear like they are vresponding to some incident. politicians do it all the time and so do businesses.

Thank god I don't live in the world according to Jack!! You prove yet again what an idiot and coward you are.

These guys were doing their jobs and doing them well and because of some fanatics who make some noise, they get punished. These guys have been working at their jobs for close to a decade or longer. There have been books published etc and you can be sure that the mainichi made lots of money off their work over the years.

Sounds like the Mainichi needs some balls and rally behind their staff. It was a prime opportunity for the Mainichi to educate and inform but they blew it. They cowered after a few nutjobs from a website made alot of noise.

[Takechanpoo]

By the way, as a matter of fact Mainichi Shinbun is almost a subsidiary of Souka-Gakkai or its Seikyo Shinbun.

[Jack]

Thank god I don't live in the world according to Jack!! You prove yet again what an idiot and coward you are.

These guys were doing their jobs and doing them well and because of some fanatics who make some noise, they get punished. These guys have been working at their jobs for close to a decade or longer. There have been books published etc and you can be sure that the mainichi made lots of money off their work over the years.

Sounds like the Mainichi needs some balls and rally behind their staff. It was a prime opportunity for the Mainichi to educate and inform but they blew it. They cowered after a few nutjobs from a website made alot of noise.

Idiot? Maybe. Coward? Definitely not.

I think you are making a mountain out of a mole here. The column has been canned and the positions have become redundant. Every day occurance in business. You are being way too emotional on here.

I know that ***** posts in here maybe he can shed some light.

[GomiGirl]

You really haven't a clue as to the real story do you??

[Jack]

You really haven't a clue as to the real story do you??

Unless there is more to it than what I read on their website, I think I have a pretty good grasp of what happened and i see nothing wrong with the move. So if the "real story"' is different please enlighten me.

[kamome]

I disagree with you on all counts. It's just bad business practice for Mainichi to continue publishing those sleezy untrue fabrications and if some readers have complained then the paper is reacting to consumer complaints by ditching it. They are doing what every other consumer-oriented business would do. There is a consumer backlash so they backtrack. Coke does it, McDonald's does it, Wal-Mart does it, everyone else does it. But it is true that all those are American or western companies. They can backtrack but god forbid if a Japanese company does it. Call it censorship, communism, biggotry or whatever, I call it good business.

I don't think this is an honest comparison. Newspapers have responsibilities to the public - to report the news, to promote public discourse - that Wal Mart and Coke do not. Backtracking like this sets a terrible precedent and undermines public trust in its product.

[Iraira]

Unless there is more to it than what I read on their website, I think I have a pretty good grasp of what happened and i see nothing wrong with the move. So if the "real story"' is different please enlighten me.

Is their own website going to contain the 100% un-spun truth regarding what they did and the full account of what transpired to lead up to this situation occurring? If you think so....Myopia?

[Charles]

I don't think this is an honest comparison. Newspapers have responsibilities to the public - to report the news, to promote public discourse - that Wal Mart and Coke do not. Backtracking like this sets a terrible precedent and undermines public trust in its product.

When did the Japanese Press ever fail to cave into to external pressure groups?

[Visitor K]

Newspapers have responsibilities to the public - to report the news, to promote public discourse - that Wal Mart and Coke do not.

thats pretty idealized thinking there.. last i checked, most major newspapers were owned by a corporation, which means they only have responsibilities to their shareholders to turn a profit.. which means a newspaper's main role is to supply an audience to advertisers (which is where newspapers get the majority of their income).
sure, some newspapers do take on a responsibility to create discourse and fairly report the news, but i think thats pretty far and few between.. but then again, i am a skeptic.

[Greji]

When did the Japanese Press ever fail to cave into to external pressure groups?

Right on Charles. It really doesn't even take pressure. Just the hint of a forthcoming objection to a story, or their coverage and they run for cover!

I listened to Inter-FM on their morning news (from "Yomiuri News Sources") on the way in to work this morning and they played the scrapping of Wai Wai up pretty big. They said that it had become as a translation of articles from the periodicals and then said that "as of late it had turned more and more to sex and seamier topics", which had prompted the complaints by Japanese. The final statements were presented in a manner that alleged Wai Wai was no longer presenting just translating articles, which was not true.

I sent an email complaining about their decision to drop Wai Wai just for yuks to see if they answer it.

[canman]

My two cents on this topic is that the losers over on 2 channel were upset that stories they felt reflected bad on them were being translated and dispersed so all could read. What amazes me is that any kind of gossip like story from the US is broadcast on every morning wide show. Ask any Obasan and they will know that Britney Spears sister had a baby, or about the so called pregnancy pact that went down in some small town in the US. But as for hard news you would never get that. So, yes I do believe that Mainichi is caving in to pressure and it is a form of censorship. Ask yourslef Jack, who was being hurt by these stories? It wasn't slander or anything like that, if it was they would have been sued, right?

[Greji]

My two cents on this topic is that the losers over on 2 channel were upset that stories they felt reflected bad on them were being translated and dispersed so all could read. What amazes me is that any kind of gossip like story from the US is broadcast on every morning wide show. Ask any Obasan and they will know that Britney Spears sister had a baby, or about the so called pregnancy pact that went down in some small town in the US. But as for hard news you would never get that. So, yes I do believe that Mainichi is caving in to pressure and it is a form of censorship. Ask yourslef Jack, who was being hurt by these stories? It wasn't slander or anything like that, if it was they would have been sued, right?

Well, said. The J-media deals in one shit pot full of those type of coverage in a lot of countries with a total lack of abandon, but the other way around? No way!!

What continues to be the pisser to me, is that as we all know, the Wai Wai stories had already been reported in Japanese without any question, available for gawkers nationwide. But, in English, it reflects bad on Japan? It never fails to amaze me that they cannot believe that FGs read Japanese, so they think have to censor the English, so the uncultured FGs won't think badly of peaceful Nihon of the four seasons.

What an elitist bunch of fucks on 2 channel.

[canman]

I'm surprised that the losers over on 2 channel haven't also attacked the Japan Times Tokyo Confidential section. Every Sunday, they print three articles from the weekly gossip magazines, and most of them are about sex, or one kind of weirdness or another that is popular in Japan. Or is it the fact that the Japan Times is an English only paper and these neanderthals can't read it? Anyway I hope that they don't succumb to pressure and stop this section.

[canman]

Sorry I meant to write Tokyo Confidential in the subject line, but for some reason wrote Media Mix. I do enjoy Phillip Brasor's articles and hope that he will take up this subject in an upcoming article.

[Takechanpoo]

What amazes me is that any kind of gossip like story from the US is broadcast on every morning wide show. Ask any Obasan and they will know that Britney Spears sister had a baby, or about the so called pregnancy pact that went down in some small town in the US. But as for hard news you would never get that. So, yes I do believe that Mainichi is caving in to pressure and it is a form of censorship.

Compared with imfomations about U.S.A in Japan, informations about Japan in U.S.A or other western countries are restricted and biased. In that circumstances, I think not a few people cannot distinguish gossips from serious articles. Meanwhile we Japanese do know about U.S society in every genres.

[TennoChinko]

So, does the following statement on the Mainichi site mean that ****** is one of the staff being "severely punished"?

If so, it looks very much like the shitfest caused by single-handed decision by Toshiaki Ogasawara to fire Japan Times sports writer Fred Varcoe after one of his articles critical of Korean hospitality (something to do with a hotel general manager assuming his Korean wife must be a prostitute since she was with a Westerner) angered the nutty nationalistic Korean internet community.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/

WaiWai Notice and Apology

Explanation and Apology Regarding Mainichi Daily News WaiWai

Mainichi Daily News, the Mainichi Newspapers' English language website, contained a corner called WaiWai that attracted criticism for such things as being too vulgar and debauching Japan by sending around the world information that could be misunderstood. In the wake of this criticism, we decided to end this corner. An online news site reported on these developments and inquired with the Mainichi Newspapers about them. The Digital Media Division which operates the information portal Mainichi.jp also includes the Mainichi Daily News and after receiving the criticism of the WaiWai corner, it was taken down from the Mainichi Daily News and a notice stuck in its place.

Mainichi Daily News is linked to Mainichi.jp. A detailed explanation of the developments in this case have also been provided in Japanese. The Mainichi Newspapers apologizes for the articles that attracted criticism.

Outline

For several years, WaiWai has taken parts of stories reported in mostly weekly magazines and used these to report on Japanese society and customs. In late May, the Mainichi Daily News editorial department began receiving complaints about the stories in WaiWai being too vulgar and an Internet bulletin board began criticizing the column. The online news site took up this issue and reported on it.

Many of the opinions about WaiWai asked the Mainichi about whether it had thought about what effect reporting to the world these stories in English would have, or that these articles would lead to a spread of misinformation about Japan.

Response

Following criticism of WaiWai in late May, we decided there was a problem with listing the stories on the Mainichi Daily News site, even though they were transcriptions of articles that had appeared in magazines published in Japan. Stories were withdrawn from the site and we halted access to problematic archived stories. We also asked search engines to prevent past WaiWai stories from being displayed.

We then changed WaiWai's editorial policy and drastically altered the standards used in story selection. However, there were problems with how past stories had been presented, so to avoid similar criticism from arising, we decided that we needed to come up with a sound editorial structure. This led to a fundamental re-think about WaiWai and on June 21, the decision was made to cease publishing the corner. On the Mainichi Daily News site, we listed the following notice: Some readers pointed out that various articles published in the WaiWai column were inappropriate content for the Mainichi Daily News. We respond to this criticism by halting publication of this column.

While explaining the process in both Japanese and English and apologizing, the Mainichi is poised to severely punish the head of the Digital Media Division, which is responsible for overseeing the site, the manager responsible for the corner and the editor involved with the stories.

Mainichi Daily News, and its publisher the Mainichi Newspapers Co., sincerely accepts readers criticism and will work to provide, edit and publish reliable information.

MDN readers,

Some readers pointed out that various articles published in the WaiWai column were inappropriate content for the Mainichi Daily News. We respond to this criticism by halting publication of this column. We plan to start a column with a new concept to replace WaiWai in the future.

Thank you for your understanding.

Mainichi Daily News

[CrankyBastard]

Unless there is more to it than what I read on their website, I think I have a pretty good grasp of what happened and i see nothing wrong with the move. So if the "real story"' is different please enlighten me.

God forbid that any of us would even think of taking a shit in this freakin "paradise" of yours.

[Greji]

God forbid that any of us would even think of taking a shit in this freakin "paradise" of yours.

By kind Cranky, if he heard and better yet, could understand the real story, it might severely cripple him. Taking a shit in paradise might be the only legitimate answer!

[baka tono]

It is one thing for the paper to step back and look at previous work and decide, 'you know, I don't know if this something we should be really focusing on' or even the publisher to step up and say 'I'm not a big fan of this and we going to stop this and do something else' (which is something Ruppert Murdock has probably done no shortage of times).

It is something completely else for the Mainichi to take work that has been going on for years and then act like this someone on staff created Pulitzer prize winning piece about some 8 year old heroin addict that turned out to be completely made up ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Cooke ) and tosses the entire staff under a bus while higher ups (whose job was supposedly to keep their eyes open for problems) just stand around talking about how shocked they are about this and then seek to toss all of the previous work down an internet memory hole Orwell style.

If they are this lackluster in their support of their own product (even if reprinted from somewhere else), I can only imagine how completely feeble their overall reporting is. If they clearly don't trust their staff, why should anyone trust anything they publish.

1. I rarely read the Mainichi online or in print, and have only read waiwai a couple of times. FG is my waiwai.
2. Finding out the column would be canceled I thought the situation was like kuang grade describes in the first paragraph with the newspaper deciding to change its format, go in new directions, no big deal. I was also surprised how emotional everyone was that some stupid column was ending. I had no idea that there was a big underlying story that was causing all the angry panty twisting.

[Mulboyne]

From the Yomiuri:

Mainichi closes controversial English-language Web page

The Mainichi Newspapers decided to shut down a controversial section of its Mainichi Daily News English-language Web site, in response to increasing public criticism, the newspaper announced Tuesday. The Mainichi said that some articles carried in the section, which was titled WaiWai, were found to be "too vulgar" and carried "inappropriate content." It also decided to take punitive measures against the head of its Digital Media Division, which is responsible for overseeing the site, the manager responsible for the section, and the editor in charge. The section in question was designed to introduce various aspects of Japanese society as well as its manners and customs by quoting reports in Japanese weekly magazines, the newspaper said. However, the corner reportedly began carrying sensationalized stories on dubious topics containing seriously vulgar expressions over at least the past six years, with headlines such as "Fast food sends schoolgirls into sexual feeding frenzy."

Consequently, the section drew criticism from readers, who complained its stories were "too vulgar and debauching Japan by sending around the world information that could be misunderstood." In late May, the Mainichi took measures to resolve the problem, withdrawing problematic stories from the site and changing WaiWai's editorial policy, the newspaper said. However, the newspaper eventually decided to shut down the column last Saturday, concluding that it would be necessary to fundamentally overhaul it with the goal of establishing a sound editorial structure. "The internal checking system was lenient. We sincerely apologize to our readers for making them feel uncomfortable," a Mainichi spokesperson said.

[CrankyBastard]

its stories were "too vulgar and debauching Japan by sending around the world information that could be misunderstood."


This country has the most vulgar sub culture I've ever seen and I've seen ..... believe me.
I'm not knocking vulgar, I like it, but maaaan! debauching Japan!!!:rofl:

[kamome]

thats pretty idealized thinking there.. last i checked, most major newspapers were owned by a corporation, which means they only have responsibilities to their shareholders to turn a profit.. which means a newspaper's main role is to supply an audience to advertisers (which is where newspapers get the majority of their income).
sure, some newspapers do take on a responsibility to create discourse and fairly report the news, but i think thats pretty far and few between.. but then again, i am a skeptic.

Of course newspapers have responsibilities to their shareholders. But they also have responsibilities that normal corporations do not have, which I spoke of before. This is why I think Jack's comparison didn't work.

[Greji]

Of course newspapers have responsibilities to their shareholders. But they also have responsibilities that normal corporations do not have, which I spoke of before. This is why I think Jack's comparison didn't work.

There you go agan Bird, confusing the issue with "responsibilities." Jack is simply defending Japan against all of the FGs that always talk bad about her. He should be put in for an Order of the Mum by Take.....

[ichigo partygirl]

I'm very dispointed at the removal of wai wai. Apart from the fact that the stories were highly amusing and entertaining it signals a rather negative change in the way the media acts/responds to comments. Now there is nothing on the site to balance out the multiple daily stories of stabbings, sexual assualts, and suicides.

[kamome]

There you go agan Bird, confusing the issue with "responsibilities." Jack is simply defending Japan against all of the FGs that always talk bad about her. He should be put in for an Order of the Mum by Take.....

I know - he's trolling.

[CrankyBastard]

Compared with imfomations about U.S.A in Japan, informations about Japan in U.S.A or other western countries are restricted and biased. In that circumstances, I think not a few people cannot distinguish gossips from serious articles. Meanwhile we Japanese do know about U.S society in every genres.

I'll say this for you Take, because I know you can't say it for yourself; you're inscrutable.

[mijonju]

I just found out how much i missed Now that when i know what Wai wai is..
its gone.. i didnt know about wai wai till after reading all these posts.. sounds really interested.

[blackcat]

We are Japanese

No Bad negative news please!

WAI WAI RIP

was always a fun read

[Big Booger]

On any given day you could look at the top stories and nearly find 4 out of 5 of the top stories came from the damn wai wai section... This shit is ridiculous.. if the users from 2 chaneru are offended maybe they aught to remove the majority of shit from their own site before they go off bitching and moaning about wai wai on the mainichi website... This shit is absurd and is a real blow to foreigners who appreciated stories like that as comical as they were... Some of the alliteration on the headlines cracked me the fuck up... RIP wai wai and fuck you 2chaneru assholes.