Because of a statement, Lu Peng, the director of Shandong TV station, was ridiculed.
Public opinion supervision is, of course, the duty of news media; taking public opinion supervision as a joke is, of course, the demise of journalistic ethics.
This is common sense. Saying too much will make others look stupid, and you will also look stupid.
But if you say Director Lu is stupid, it’s not really the case. Even freshmen in the School of Journalism and Communication understand this. How could a TV station director not understand? He is smarter than anyone else; he is just pretending to be ignorant.
But once those with power and influence pretend to be ignorant, we have to discuss some simple truths that don’t need to be discussed at the level of basic common sense.
This is our fate, and it is also our sorrow.
Director Lu said that they never do cross-provincial public opinion supervision, although I have not downloaded the “Lightning News” app, I believe him.
Cross-provincial public opinion supervision, or in other words, local public opinion supervision, has long become a scarce commodity. Originally, only a few media outlets could occasionally appear in a few less sensitive events. True public opinion supervision, whether local or cross-provincial, has long been extinct.
Shandong Television said that they never do cross-provincial public opinion supervision, which is, of course, sincere.
However, when Director Lu said, “We never broadcast anything in the gray area,” I had some doubts.
The public account “Youyou Luming” looked through the Douyin account of “Lightning Video” (a large account with more than 15.5 million followers) and found a lot of “gray area things” from other provinces:
December 14, Chengdu, Sichuan. A sanitation worker accidentally swept fallen leaves onto a dog, and the woman responded violently with kicking and scolding…
December 20, Shijiazhuang, Hebei. A woman paid 7.85 yuan for a special taxi and was “yin and yang” by the driver. The platform: the driver has stopped accepting orders.
December 24, Wuhan, Hubei. A woman was not allowed to order more meat dishes by the restaurant owner when eating a buffet, saying: “A buffet is not about eating whatever you want…”
January 3, Guangzhou, Guangdong. A ride-hailing driver refused to carry a guide dog. The person involved: the platform clearly stated that the driver violated the agreement.
January 2, Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Customers bought smelly beef at Yonghui Supermarket…
January 4, Beijing. A man bought fake donkey meat and exposed it on the spot. The seller wanted to take it back, and a tug-of-war was staged at the market.
January 15, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang. A retired uncle played cards at a self-service bank…
This is positive energy? Of course, it is not positive energy. But does it matter? I’m afraid it doesn’t matter much.
As “Youyou Luming” said:
The objects of criticism in this kind of public opinion supervision are all ordinary people who lack the ability to “counteract”: the woman who kicked the sanitation worker, the ride-hailing driver who was “yin and yang” to the passenger, the ride-hailing driver who refused to carry the guide dog, the buffet restaurant owner who did not allow more meat dishes, the supermarket that sold smelly beef, the market that sold fake beef, the uncle who played cards at the self-service bank…
Director Lu said that they never broadcast anything in the gray area, so it should be that the so-called “gray area” is not the same as what we think of as the “gray area.”
Or, Director Lu’s so-called “gray area” only spreads below, and it is very sensible and does not go up.
And Director Lu said that they “only forward positive energy,” which is well-deserved.
Just flip through the “Lightning News” Douyin account, and the positive energy in the videos released in the past two days is overflowing the screen:
January 16, Yantai, Shandong. Netizens filmed the red ocean at sunrise, so beautiful.
January 15, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. On a roommate’s birthday, everyone “surprisingly” prepared a “cake” for him…
January 16, Nanjing, Jiangsu. A man received a takeaway call in the KTV: go downstairs to pick up the child…
January 15, Yuncheng, Shanxi. The road was slippery due to snow, and a family fell in sync. Netizens commented: “They are a family.”
January 14, Changchun, Jilin. “Little potatoes” swarmed to experience the bathing culture, and the bath center was overcrowded. The photographer: they are all so cute
January 10, Zhejiang. A man got drunk and couldn’t find his car the next day, so he took a ride-hailing car to look for it…
In terms of “turning any trivial matters into news“, “Lightning News” is not inferior to any other media.
Under the premise of not touching the real contradictions, on the one hand, there are minor contradictions that are neither painful nor itchy, and on the other hand, there are small, cute, and trivial little happiness. This is Director Lu’s tenet.
What is it like? It’s like the sketches we see on New Year’s Eve now. No matter how big the contradictions are, they can be solved with a sentence of “Okay”, and the rest is infinite positive energy.
That’s really healing.
The reason for doing this, Director Lu said, is because – “We remember that Confucius has a golden rule accepted by all mankind and all nations, which is, do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself“.
His meaning is that we in Shandong don’t want other provinces to make fun of us, so we don’t make fun of others.
I am not from Shandong, but I think that any Shandong person who loves their hometown and has normal rationality and emotions should welcome the media to supervise the local area. If there is injustice, darkness, or ugliness, and it can be improved and enhanced under the exposure and supervision of the media, making the social environment in which they live better, isn’t it a good thing?
Therefore, cross-provincial public opinion supervision should be “what one wants.” The reason why Director Lu said “do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself” may be that his so-called “self” and “others” are not what we think of as “self” and “others.”
I see many people writing articles, talking about journalistic ethics and cultural traditions, and I think it’s a bit irrelevant.
Before criticizing Director Lu, you must see clearly the object of Director Lu’s speech – reporting to the leaders.
He said that he would not do cross-provincial supervision, would not broadcast anything in the gray area, and would only forward positive energy, but it was just a different way of saying 【we will not cause trouble for the leaders】.
Such an operation is originally a tacit understanding of the media, and almost all media are doing this openly, but no one has ever been embarrassed to say it out loud. Director Lu just put it on the table.
Director Lu just said a few words of truth and expressed the voice of many media, that’s all.
You laugh at Director Lu for making himself a joke, but he thinks he has handed in a guarantee and an operating manual.
In the future, if everyone learns from him, there will be no public opinion supervision, no gray areas, only positive energy, and from then on, you, me, and everyone will be fine, and the prince and princess will really live happily ever after.
It’s just that Confucius, who was cursing “hypocrites, the thieves of virtue“, if he saw such descendants running rampant in Shandong, I don’t know what he would think.
—The End—
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