You are here
WaiWai From the Inside
A little bit more on the WaiWai scandal, this time from the inside.
Adam Richards from Mutant Frog Travelogue provides a translation of an article by Toshinao Sasaki posted in August at CNET Japan about the scandal that illustrates what went on inside the newspaper.
In it, we see that the Mainichi circled the wagons, daring its critics to bring it on, instead of coming clean about WaiWai. As Sasaki writes about the backlash, "its destructive force has created an astonishing situation. This incident may well be the milestone that turns the relationship between the Internet and the mass media on its head."
Why was the post-scandal management so inconceivably horrible?
I am sorry if this sounds like I am turning my back on my mentor, senior reporters, and bosses, but the Mainichi’s handling of the post-scandal management was just terrible. This has been pointed out several times elsewhere, but first off is the fact that the following passage was included in the June 22 “apology” article: “In a related development, a flood of messages and images have appeared online that gravely defame and slander a number of our company’s female staff writers and other employees, who are in no way accountable for this matter nor subject to punitive measures. The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. is determined to take legal action against such clearly illegal acts that constitute defamation.”/p>
Second, their responses to media coverage of the scandal were awful. For example, they acted snobbishly toward J-Cast News, the first media organization to report the scandal, and this attitude became even clearer with their unbelievable response to a citizen journalist for PJ News.
Thirdly, it has never been made public how Mainichi views this issue internally, what sort of debate is taking place, or how employees see the reactions from the Internet. A two-page examination of the scandal was printed in the July 20 edition of the newspaper, but this article only describes the series of events leading up to the scandal, and contains nothing whatsoever about the company’s views after the scandal broke. Far from it — the article contains a shocking comment from freelance journalist Kunio Yanagita: “The fact that these attacks on a failure are taking the appearance of violence caused by Internet agitation make me fear that the dark underbelly of the anonymous Internet is no longer a distant phenomenon.”
Comments
Gimme a break. A bunch of turbo nerds got pissed that a website made fun of Their Japan(TM), and made a big enough stink to shut it down. Congrats! Now you 2channers are both dangerous nationalists *and* social misfits! Woo woo progress!
"This incident may well be the milestone that turns the relationship between the Internet and the mass media on its head"
Scandal? Furore? Maybe I'm alone, but I doubt it. I think you're overblowing this WaiWai story. I'd never heard of it before I read about it here, and I bet most foreigners in Japan hadn't either. You're really stretching it, trying to make a story out of a complete non-event.
Sincerely,
BN
My question is what happened to Tokyo Confidential (the Japan Times version of Wai Wai)? It used to be on-line but it disappeared just after Wai Wai got pulled. Did the Japan Times cave to pressure?
You're right. Tokyo Confidential is missing from the JT. If you click on a story from this list, you get the message: This article cannot be displayed because it is currently under editorial review. We apologize for any inconvenience.
I suppose the JT is being cautious given what has happened to the Mainichi. Who knows, maybe the internet mob got to them, too?
Shawn
Just because you didn't read or hear about it doesn't mean it didn't happen or that it wasn't important. Sasaki says in the article that the press isn't reporting the WaiWai scandal because they are afraid of retribution. I think this, plus the fact that the bulk of the discussion has been taking place in Japanese on Japanese blogs and forums, excludes most foreigners in Japan from learning about what's been going on. On that note, I'm grateful for the translation. Now I see that the Japan Times has pulled their tabloid column. I say that the loss of WaiWai is just the tip of the iceberg.
I also see where Sasaki is coming from. Unlike a lot of Western media websites, media outlets in Japan lag behind in arching content and combining it with multimedia features. It's a story about Old Media failing to learn new tricks while new technologies reduce their ability to control information.
This story is just one, BIG, irrelevant YAWN!
Mr. Arudou has a link that leads me to believe the Japan Times chickened out but doesn't even have the guts to say so.
http://www.debito.org/?p=1857
Does all this excitement mean my 2001 book Tokyo Confidential (an edited collection of Wai Wai articles) is now a collectors item?
Grabbing said collection off the bookshelf I also notice that Wai Wai started in 1992. I'm surprised it took 16 years to blow up.
Now that WAIWAI has gone, where can I get my regular fix of articles, reinforcing my belief in my racial and cultural superiority, via the stigmatising of Japan, and creating a general good round of belly laughs, courtesy of those wacky Japanese?
Oh, wait, I just found THE SMALL PRINT in Metropolis! Phew! What a relief...
Add new comment