71–80 of 494 posts
The linked article ends with this: “Why the Japanese media has refused to identify the ‘religious group’ that formed the motive for the killing must remain as speculation at this juncture, though it reflects very poorly on Japan’s status as a democratic nation.” It’s important to note that the Japanese media is not monolithic. It’s true that the major newspapers (Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, Nikkei, etc.) and the broadc…
TL;DR Shinzo Abe was associated with a religious group 'Church of Unification'... that motivated Tetsuya Yamagami to target and kill Shinzo Abe. Yamagami told investigators that he blamed a “religious group” (i.e. the Unification Church) for inducing his mother to donate so much money that it bankrupted the family. He initially prepared to kill a church leader, but gave up after deciding it was too difficult. Yamagam…
The problem with this reporting is that it takes the killer's supposed words at face value. This is a big risk, especially as at this stage we are not entirely certain that those words are accurate.
Now, this may eventually appear to be the case, but the level of certainty presented in this article is unfounded.
Why the Japanese media has refused to identify the ‘religious group’ that formed the motive for the killing must remain as speculation at this juncture, though it reflects very poorly on Japan’s status as a democratic nation. It is quite striking in the UK and US how mainstream media will be remarkably coy about identifying the cultural background of some criminals while straight off the bat into condemnatory opinion…
Quoted post unavailable.
It’s sadly anyone but Arabs ( in this post 9-11 America).
You all know the shooters are white/black/asian (typically through social medial or other outside channels) in America, but it’s not spoken.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not "the same" at all. It's a matter of degrees, which make a huge difference.
It's no different at all. You'll be excluded from press clubs and conferences just the same. Identical situation.
The US is a federalized country with quite big cultural differences between states, and at least alternates between two major parties, and frequently shifting administrations. You can at most get canceled by one side. Japan is centralized and monolithic to an extent that really has no parallel in any other democratic country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> pretty ignorant to imply that suppressing information is inconsistent with democracy It sort of is inconsistent with democracy. People should know for whom and for what they vote.
Is it? In most democracies in the world there are things you cannot publish even if they are true - Britain for example still maintains an official state censor, and even in the US there are still some state secrets that you cannot publish regardless of how true they are . Britain and many other countries also maintain a right to privacy that protects non-public-figure individuals against salacious soap-opera tabloid…
That is simply not true. There are many examples where USA newspapers published leaked secrets and the journalist were not convicted for it in any case.
The Pentagon Papers come to mind as the most famous example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers
Nobusuke Kishi (Abe's grandfather) has an extremely interesting backstory: > As a self-described "playboy of the Eastern world", Kishi was known during his four years in Manchukuo for his lavish spending amid much drinking, gambling, and womanizing.[34] Kishi spent almost all of his time in Manchukuo's capital, Hsinking (modern Changchun, China) with the exception of monthly trips to Dalian on the world famous Asia E…
There's definitely a culture of brothels that still exists thats pretty foreign to the West. You won't really hear about it because Japanese people don't just offer there stories up to foreigners... but I've had sources inform me of places where people can go for orgies (in a way Americans may casually visit a strip club which is a toned down version of this) and I believe in some cases can even be expensed to the bu…
Underground life in Japan can get pretty extreme. Typically foreigners aren't privy or allowed in such environments. Not saying it doesn't happen, though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
Your thinly veiled accusation of racism notwithstanding, I don’t think there’s anything morally deplorable in thinking the media should help the public build a more statistically representative model of the world we live in, regardless of the cultural background of criminals. As an example, I don’t think the demographic of young white guys fare too well in the mass shooter statistic, but omitting this reality isn’t o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
Your thinly veiled accusation of racism notwithstanding, I don’t think there’s anything morally deplorable in thinking the media should help the public build a more statistically representative model of the world we live in, regardless of the cultural background of criminals. As an example, I don’t think the demographic of young white guys fare too well in the mass shooter statistic, but omitting this reality isn’t o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the same in every country, including the US where entire agencies will just stop talking to you if you piss them off (especially police departments.) It's one of the ways we get all this propaganda even though we have a nominally "free" press.
It's not "the same" at all. It's a matter of degrees, which make a huge difference.