No Need for Deceptive Newspapers — A Critique of Postwar Media Through the Asahi Shimbun Debate
A critical discussion of media responsibility and historical narratives centered on criticism of the Asahi Shimbun.
Raises fundamental questions about truth, journalism, and the social role of newspapers in postwar Japan.
2019-01-07
In the end, it was also the Asahi Shimbun that fabricated the comfort women issue and spread falsehoods about the Nanjing Massacre.
It was also Asahi that internationalized the Yasukuni issue.
Does Japan really need such a newspaper?
A chapter published on 2018-04-22 under the title “Without Any Reflection, It Praised China’s Cultural Revolution, Admired Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and Hailed North Korea as a ‘Paradise on Earth’” is now ranked among the top ten searches on goo.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
We do not need newspapers that deceive people.
Abiru.
I believe the Asahi Shimbun is now something close to an anti-social force.
Perhaps it can be described as something that harms society.
Look back at history.
Before the war, it dragged Japan into war.
Afterward, without reflection, it praised China’s Cultural Revolution, admired the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, and hailed North Korea as a “paradise on earth.”
All of it was false.
In the end, it was also the Asahi Shimbun that fabricated the comfort women issue and spread lies about the Nanjing Massacre.
It was also Asahi that turned the Yasukuni issue into an international problem.
Does Japan need such a newspaper?
When I see Asahi reporters introducing themselves as “from Asahi,” I cannot help wondering whether they feel no shame.
Ogawa.
An entity that deceives people with lies should not even exist as an adversary.
It is nothing more than a nuisance to society.
This is not merely about saying the editorial stance of the Asahi Shimbun is bad.
It is about the fact that liars sell six million copies of a newspaper every day and remain untroubled.
Such a thing cannot be allowed in a functioning society.
Ultimately, criticism of the Asahi Shimbun simply means that there must not exist newspapers that deceive people with lies.