Song-Hing Cheong: Hi, Jason, nice to meet you.

myrla5: Thank you--it is my pleasure.

myrla5: You are a journalist by profession I assume.

Song-Hing Cheong: yap, in a Chinese Daily in Singapore.

Song-Hing Cheong: I believe you know Chinese too, aren't you?

myrla5: Well I am much honored--I am not a journalist, but I have learned some Chinese.

Song-Hing Cheong: Where you learnt Chinese? Taiwan? Hong Kong? China? Or in the US

myrla5: US---mostly educational CDs and computer, but also chat with Chinese speakers on the internet or phone--very helpful.

Song-Hing Cheong: I see. I have blog in Chinese too. If you want to read it, I can give you the link.

myrla5: Sure.

Song-Hing Cheong: hand on a second.

Song-Hing Cheong: http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhangcongxing

Song-Hing Cheong: are you a teacher or a researcher?

myrla5: Truly I am neither--I just become curious about Chinese culture after learning some Chinese Qi Kong and Tai chi chuan.

myrla5: So I learned some Mandarin.

myrla5: very great website.

myrla5: You come from Buddhist tradition I see.

Song-Hing Cheong: ha-ha, after reading your blog, I thought that you are a journalist, because you commented on Communism and Iraq war that are the issues we in the newsroom monitoring every minute. Ha-ha!

Song-Hing Cheong: yap, I am a Buddhist.

myrla5: ha-ha -- no I just have very strong opinions.

myrla5: I am an average American.

Song-Hing Cheong: may I know what are you doing for a living?

myrla5: lab technician.

myrla5: medical health field.

Song-Hing Cheong: I am an electronic technician by training too, but I decided to go into the news business.

myrla5: very interesting--I would probably do the same if I could make enough money--how do you like it?

Song-Hing Cheong: I just came back from the USA, took a lot of pictures, you can see them in my Chinese blog.

myrla5: That's great--I will do that--what city?

Song-Hing Cheong: aha, about 18 years ago, I wrote a piece of commentary about the Tiananmen Incident in 1989, and the editor of the paper I working in now, decided to employ me.

myrla5: That is wonderful--a great career change.

Song-Hing Cheong: I visited the D.C, the Twin cities in Minnesota and the Tampa Bay area in Florida.

myrla5: How did you like DC?

Song-Hing Cheong: I read your profile in details and find that we have common interests, enjoy travel, picture taking, museums, politics, and Chinese cultures.

Song-Hing Cheong: I like DC; it is very European in terms of Architecture.

myrla5: Yes--you are very right

myrla5: Since the first settlers were from England.

myrla5: but of course America now has many different people and cultures.

Song-Hing Cheong: I hate skyscraper, and DC does not has high rise buildings, that is another reason I like it.

Song-Hing Cheong: Although the first settlers were from England, but the French helped the American to fight the British.

myrla5: yes and native Americans helped.

Song-Hing Cheong: That is why DC was original designed by the French that was what I was told.

myrla5: You may be right--I am no expert --but The Statue of Liberty was from France--and some of the architecture is more like Greek design.

myrla5: The round pillars are like Greek coliseum.

Song-Hing Cheong: yes, the Lincoln memorial is a replica of the Parthenon.

myrla5: ha--you know more things about America in some ways.

myrla5: more than me.

Song-Hing Cheong: believe you or not, we in Asia know more about the American than the American know about us.

myrla5: I think you are right.

myrla5: I think the rest of the worlds are very curious about America.

Song-Hing Cheong: In my Primary School text book, written in Chinese, there was a lesson about the honest boy who chopped down a cherry tree...

myrla5: hen you yisi

Song-Hing Cheong: you know who he was.

myrla5: Washington.

Song-Hing Cheong: This story is also teaching in the schools in mainland china now: 华盛顿和一棵樱桃树

myrla5: I think it is great that other people are learning about America.

Song-Hing Cheong: A beautiful Taiwanese singer even has a song about this story.

Song-Hing Cheong: http://music.ent.tom.com/2007-05-10/0050/22240932.html

myrla5: So, I think many in China are very curious about America and its founding.

myrla5: and system of government.

Song-Hing Cheong: maybe, but the main reason is for moral education - Washington is a model of honesty.

Song-Hing Cheong: A virtue which the Presidents of the modern USA lack of.

myrla5: I agree.

Song-Hing Cheong: that is a pity,

myrla5: I do not like our leadership

myrla5: Yes, it is a pity--because America can be so much greater with better leadership.

Song-Hing Cheong: I was invited by the State Department to participate in the Edward R. Murrow Program for journalists.

myrla5: That seems like a great honor.

Song-Hing Cheong: The main reason is to let people from all over the world to come to America to have a better understanding of the American.

Song-Hing Cheong: To be frank, I think that what the US government needs to do is the opposite.

Song-Hing Cheong: They should try to let more American elites to understand the world outside the New Continent.

myrla5: Interesting how we agree on so many things.

myrla5: although we are from different countries and cultures.

Song-Hing Cheong: you know Chinese, so I can share something with you.

Song-Hing Cheong: The Chinese believe in Qiu Tong Cun Yi （求同存异）, that is what the American believe in Agree to Disagree.

Song-Hing Cheong: The Chinese believe in He Er Bu Tong（和而不同）, that is what the American believes in Unity in Diversity.

Song-Hing Cheong: In fact, the American and the Chinese share more in common than differences.

myrla5: I think most Americans and Chinese people think that way, but not the elite.

Song-Hing Cheong: Yes, that is also a pity.

myrla5: Yes, I agree that most people regardless of culture believe in truth and justice

Song-Hing Cheong: in fact, what happening in China now is a revival of an old civilization; it is not a rise of a new superpower, as advocated by some of the Hawkish.

Song-Hing Cheong: even if you want to phrase it as a superpower, the Chinese Communist is also not a replica of the Soviet.

myrla5: Yes, I agree the soviet model is gone.

Song-Hing Cheong: The reality in China now is a capitalist system lead by a Communist Party.

myrla5: Yes---capitalism is a reality that no one can avoid.

Song-Hing Cheong: more capitalist than the USA.

myrla5: I agree---and that seems to be a contradiction because the Communist have always spoke against the capitalist dogs.

myrla5: It is in so many ways contrary to Communist principles.

Song-Hing Cheong: it is a very interesting episode. What happening in China now, for examples, the explicit exploitation which you can never find in Japan, the EU, the USA, etc,

Song-Hing Cheong: was what condemned by Karl Marx in his writings.

myrla5: Yes--America is more for the proletariat-an interesting reversal.

myrla5: There will always be people in power under any system--I think there needs only to be balance and harmony in society.

Song-Hing Cheong: that is why I still believe in what Marx predicted; Communism can only be achieved after the highest stage of Capitalism.

Song-Hing Cheong: America is more socialist than the Communist China - my observation after three-week stay in the US.

myrla5: I agree with you absolutely---and I think there are principles that remain no matter what form of government.

Song-Hing Cheong: My other observation is that the American is more Confucianist than the Chinese.

myrla5: Without work there is no production---without reward, there is no incentive to work--these are important principles.

Song-Hing Cheong: for instant, many of the old virtues of the ancient Chinese were abandoned by the modern Chinese, but you can still find these virtues in modern American common folks live.

Song-Hing Cheong: Caring of family, proper manners, honesty, etc.

myrla5: That is very interesting, but I think most people have some good and some bad.

Song-Hing Cheong: agree.

Song-Hing Cheong: what I am saying is an impression from a foreigner like me who is a totally stranger.

Song-Hing Cheong: I never visited the USA before, this was my first time.

myrla5: I see---that is very flattering to the American people.

myrla5: That is a great compliment.

Song-Hing Cheong: The America I knew before my foot touched the New Continent was from the media, Hollywood Movies for instance.

myrla5: I can understand that -- was the old impression accurate or not accurate?

myrla5: Did your impression change?

Song-Hing Cheong: Then I found out that the common folks in the streets are not those heroes or devils portrayed in the films.

myrla5: Truly I think all people are basically the same inside although sometimes different language and culture.

myrla5: Scientists have traced all humans to a common ancestor in Africa where they believe the first humans lived and then migrated to the rest of the world.

Song-Hing Cheong: Yap, if you are a religious fellow, then I will say, "We are all the same because we are the same off springs of Adam and Eve."

Song-Hing Cheong: If you believe in Darwinism, than I will say, "We are all the same because we are the same offspring of the Apes."

Song-Hing Cheong: No manner we are offspring of Adam and Eve or the Apes, we are the same.

myrla5: I completely agree.

Song-Hing Cheong: So we are all brothers and sisters in a big family.

myrla5: We agree on so many things, we are like brothers.

Song-Hing Cheong: maybe different in colors, different in faiths, different in cultures, but why not we look in what we are common in and forget about the differences.

myrla5: Yes -- and in America one must learn to accept others because there are so many different people -- or we live in a very small world.

Song-Hing Cheong: If the political elites in the different governments in different nations can think in this way, we can live in a better world.

myrla5: Yes I agree, but unfortunately power o the elite always lead to arrogance.

myrla5: power creates arrogance.

myrla5: So, perhaps the people need more power and less power for the elite.

Song-Hing Cheong: Oops! I have to prepare my lunch now. Enjoy chatting with you. This is a very meaningful discussion. If you agree, I shall publish it on my blog under this title: A dialogue between two common folks in Singapore and the USA.

myrla5: No problem.

Song-Hing Cheong: Great! Thank you.

My Critique on American Journalism

By Song-Hing Cheong

During my first visit to the New Continent under the sponsorship of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, a famous quotation by Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was quoted again and again.

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Dina Powell, the Assistant Secretary of State quoted Jefferson when she addressed all the participating journalists at the welcome luncheon held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Monday, April 9, 2007.

Although the same verse was not repeated by Secretary Condoleezza Rice when she spoke to us the following day, she did mention this great American President in her remarks which targeted an audience of nearly two hundred journalists from all over the world.

She stated, “We thought it only fitting to have a program that brings the world's journalists to America to discuss issues of foreign policy, issues of concern to the peoples of the world because there is no more important pillar of democracy than a free and active press. In fact, our Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, called it the ‘fourth estate’ and by that he meant that without a free and active press the people could not be certain that their views would be known to their leaders and that their leaders' views would be known to them. It is a great tradition that the press is a place for active debate, for active reporting, for investigative reporting, for in-depth reporting and for daily reporting. But it's also a great tradition and it's something that I would like to remember today that journalists are often those who are on the front lines of some of the most difficult conflicts in the world, very often giving their lives, paying the highest sacrifice to report the news. And in these days of conflict around the world there are always journalists who have given their lives and so I want to especially acknowledge that sacrifice.”  Thomas Jefferson was indeed an undeniable patron of the Freedom of Press, in the way Secretary Rice described him.

Jefferson’s influence in American Journalism is so tremendous that his name was mentioned not only by one or two, but by dozens of government officials, journalists and scholars during my three-week stay in the USA. His famous verse was also quoted again and again in panels, in roundtables, in lectures and in group discussions when I visited Washington DC, Minnesota and Florida.

As a journalist whose obligation and responsibility is nothing else but to know the truth first and let the masses know the truth later, I did some research on the above mentioned quotation by Thomas Jefferson, just to find out when and why he said that.

Eureka! I have found it! I was so joyful like Archimedes when I discovered this famous quotation actually came from a letter written to Edward Carrington, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army dated January 16, 1787 by Thomas Jefferson when he was in Paris.

In fact, this letter together with other letters, articles, essays, etc., written by Jefferson and other Founding Fathers of the United States in the 1770s and 1780s constituted the foundation of the Bill of Rights, or the First Amendment, when they were debating and discussing the essence of the Bill before it was initially drafted by James Madison in 1789 and finally came into effect on December 15, 1791. Since my American counterparts’ constitutional right to freedom of expression is provided and protected by the First Amendment, its corner stones, in which this letter is definitely the most important one regarding freedom of the press and is therefore worth revisiting.

Rather than replicating the whole letter, let me try my best to quote Jefferson in context.

“……The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro' the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them……” Jefferson wrote in his letter to Edward Carrington.

By studying the text carefully, every man who acquired basic reading skill in the English language shall have no doubt that the essence of what Jefferson said here is not simply offering an either-or choice for choosing between the government or the press, but to give the people the maximum knowledge about what their government is doing so that they can decide what government they want reasonably and not emotionally, or rationally and not irrationally. In other words, every common American citizen needs to know what their local, state and federal governments are doing or going to do in the maximum details, if possible, before voting them into office. Jefferson believed that it is the responsibility of the newsroom, not the school, to educate as well as inform the public what actually happens in the town council, in the governor’s office, in the White House, in the Capitol, etc. The only responsibility of the school teacher is to teach the children how to read so that they are capable of reading the newspaper when they grow up.

During my three-week visit, almost every American journalist I met told me that the newspaper business is bad today and the newsroom has to pay more attention to local issues rather than national or international issues so that the paper can sell, etc.

“Nowadays, the newsroom seldom considers what the readers need to know, but what they want to know.” “Our newspapers need not cover these topics - the information about national issues, even international issues, are all there on the internet. The public can access and read them.” These are examples of typical answers from scholars in journalism school and pressmen in the newsroom when I asked them to comment on the absence of international news coverage in many American newspapers.

Indeed, there is more than abundant information on the Internet, but it is only available if someone knows what to look for. For example, Tom, a common folk who lives in rural area and seldom pays a visit to downtown, needs to know what is Al Jazeera before he decided to click on its website to look for the other side of the story. It is the responsibility of the local American media to educate or at least inform Tom that the Al Jazeera is the largest Arabic News Channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar, offering news coverage 24 hours a day from around the world and focusing on the Middle East affairs, isn’t it?

“The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro' the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people.” Listen to what Jefferson said, my fellow American journalists, and ask yourself whether you have tried your best to give the American public the full information that they need to know, or have your more and more localized newspaper, radio, or TV, tried their best to penetrate the whole mass of the people instead of satisfying certain needs of certain niche market or certain group of people?   

 A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies. So, if anyone wants to quote Jefferson, please quote him completely and comprehensively, not half or parts of the sentence, or else it shall be equivalent to a half-truth, and that is nothing else but the most cowardly of lies!