The mainstream printed media, including BN media, has continued to highlight and prominently publish political attacks by BN against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng over the proposed nomination by Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce(PCCC) to nominate his wife Betty Chew to be an ordinary member of a PCCC Property committee. Whilst the mainstream media has every right to do so and even take a partisan approach, it has unfortunately failed to be impartial by printing fully the Chief Minister’s explanation.
The mainstream printed media, who have highlighted the attacks against the Chief Minister, ignores one critical point he raised. Like any organisation, PCCC can nominate whoever they want to sit in their committees, but since his wife has rejected the nomination, there is no longer any issue. Unfortunately, the mainstream media did not print the Chief Minister’s question “Why is there no similar news attention given to BN’s leaders wives, when there are even more widespread and interesting reports in the social media and internet?”
This double-standards targeted against the Penang Chief Minister has intensified in the printed mainstream media both refusing to print his statements and highlighting blog attacks by BN against PR leaders but not blog attacks by PR against BN. Perhaps the failure of the printed mainstream media to be independent and truthful, has resulted in increasing dependence on news on online and social media.