By examining the words and actions surrounding a journalist’s political activism, this article analyzes the exclusionary mindset inherent in leftist ideology.
Through the case of Tokyo Shimbun reporter Isoko Mochizuki, it reveals how intolerance toward dissenting views manifests in journalism and public discourse.
2017-08-02
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
In the final phrase, “even if it means making the authorities my enemy, I have no choice but to step forward,” one can even sense self-intoxication.
Reporter Mochizuki gained fame through a barrage of blunt questions directed at Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Bathed in thunderous applause from the audience, perhaps she imagined herself as a Jeanne d’Arc determined to bring down the administration. She has even attacked me.
When the Okinawa feature of the program “News Joshi,” which I host, became controversial, she publicly named me on social media, declaring such things as “Do not deflect the issue without apologizing,” and “I don’t want you to use the Tokyo Shimbun title. You should leave the company.”
I will set aside the criticism directed at me personally.
What deserves attention is the latter part. The phrase “do not use the Tokyo Shimbun title” precisely reveals a way of thinking common to the left.
Not only she, but the left cannot tolerate the very existence of people nearby who do not share the same views as themselves.
This is no exaggeration; the left are people who think in precisely this way.
She is convinced that “Tokyo Shimbun is a newspaper that criticizes the Abe administration, and that this is correct.”
In reality, this is merely her own arbitrary assumption (Tokyo Shimbun does not belong to her, nor is she in a position of absolute authority), but she finds it intolerable that someone like me, who is not left-wing, could exist within such a newspaper as an editorial writer (at the time, deputy editorial chief).
That is why it leads to the demand, “Leave the company.”
To be continued.