My buddy, Tom, at Isaan-Live hit the nail on the head today with his blog post about the floods in Thailand, Shame on those who call themselves journalists in Thailand.

The “reporting” on the floods in Bangkok and the rest of Thailand by The Nation and the Bangkok Post has been nothing short of worthless.

Thailand Floods Bangkok Journalism

I agree 100% with Tom on the piss-poor reporting on the floods that we have had to put up with and all the other articles in the Almost English online news sources.

Daily we are given conflicting stories, often listed one after the other on the front page, telling us that the flood waters are receding in one story and in another telling people to evacuate.

The writers hacks, in most cases, don’t even list their name as a byline to the story.  No individual to blame that way.

We were often treated to stories telling us that “places” were “affected” without identifying what exactly a “place” is and what “affected” means.

Reports told us that 21 districts were at risk of flooding without listing which districts.

Photos of the floods provided at the Bangkok Post were lifted from the blog pantip.com without giving proper attribution to the copyright holder(s).

No reports from “the field” – only reports we received were from pen wielding copiers of Thai Government numbers.  Bazillions of cubic liters of water, Gazillions of Thai baht lost, Uberzillions of people displaced.  Nothing verified, nothing questioned – ever.

We are told by the Minister of Tourism and Sports that tourist arrivals are up 7 percent in October compared to October 2010 – no one questions this piece of pure fabrication.

We are told to go to the Tourism Authority of Thailand news site, tatnews.org for “situation updates”.  I just checked at 0844 on 17 October 2011, and the current “situation update” is from 14 November at 1530.  And, for the most part, the updates on the Thailand floods, along with being 1-3 days old, have been incorrect, incomplete, sugar coated, and in some cases, completely false.

The Nation has reported that Social networks overtake papers and may have some of their hack reporters journalists word-copiers shaking in their boots.  Many folks in Thailand have switched to Facebook and Twitter to get accurate, timely, and honest information about the floods.  Tom has been covering the floods for over two months – yes – the flooding didn’t start in Bangkok – it started in the North and Northeast (Isaan) and has forced people in Khon Kaen to live on one lane of the Ring Road as their village was under 2 meters of water.

When Tom gets his flood information he actually goes to the area – unlike the folks at The Nation and the Bangkok Post.  Tom actually hops in his truck and drives to areas that the Almost English online news sources report as being flooded – Tom finds them to be high and dry.  Other areas that the online news sources report as being unaffected, are in 1-2 meters of flood water.

Tom actually takes his own photos with his own camera, geotags them with the current date and time, and posts them immediately to his online photo album and to his Twitter account (which is also linked to Facebook).  He doesn’t have to go to some other online blog and steal photos.  He also shoots video and uploads it shortly thereafter to his Youtube account.

Tom actually talks to the people that are suffering along the side of the road and have been suffering for 1-2 months.  He finds out that the Provincial Government workers just show up for photo opportunities, force the people to walk for many kilometers, make them sit and listen to bullshit political speeches for hours on end, just to get a care package provided by someone other than the politician.

But, the folks at The Nation and the Bangkok Post only go to where the big shot Thai Government Officials come out with their 5 o’clock follies and write down every word verbatim, and rush back to their computers to post totally inaccurate, incomplete, false, misleading, conflicting, non-news.

The only folks I see reporting in “the field” are TV reporters who are obligated to stand in at least knee-deep water when reporting on any area in Bangkok.  If only they would put some of the information in English the expats and tourists may get some decent info.

The survey stated that there was a 6% increase in folks using Facebook and Twitter instead of the traditional reading of newspapers.  Still it only accounts for about 24%-25% of the population.  I am willing to bet that if they surveyed expats and tourists, the percentage would be closer to 80%-90%.

Both Tom and I have been asked on a regular basis via Twitter and Facebook and email what is the truth about the floods in Thailand. The mainstream media in America either posts very little about the floods or they take the extreme side and say that all of Thailand is flooded.  Neither is close to being correct.

The Thai Government, especially the Department of Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, along with the Thai Hotel folks and the Thai Travel Agents have taken to blaming the foreign media for the plunge in tourism arrivals (don’t believe the Thai Government numbers) when it has been the Thai Government all along that has caused all the confusion and lack of trust among the tourist community and the poor reporting by the Almost English media in Thailand.  The Thai Government is infamous for pointing fingers away from the real cause of any issue.

Unfortunately, being an expat in Thailand, we are stuck with the news of the floods as reported by the Bangkok Post and The Nation – at least – until the Facebook Posts and the Twitter Tweets run them out of business.

Tags: bangkok bangkok post facebook floods hack writers isaan journalism the nation twitter