Reviewing the Straits Times Reviewers: wither Journalistic integrity
hanseltansw, from the online group Arts Community said:
On the 20th of August 2008, a certain film reviewer Mr John Lui from
the Straits Times sat through the opening run of W!LD RICE’s “Own
Time Own Target”, a triple bill of army plays written by Laremy Lee
and Julian Wong. A few days later, a review appeared in the Life!
section of the Straits Times in which he described Wong’s “Botak
Boys” as the “most throwaway script of the lot”…
When the Straits Times was queried about these inconsistencies, it
became clear that Mr Lui had left the show ten minutes into the
musical. In other words, Mr Lui had watched no more than a fifth of
the musical, of which he felt he had acquired the jornalistic
pedestal to unleash such an unfair, inaccurate and misinformed
judgment on Julian Wong’s piece.
The following day, the Straits Times offered a retraction NOT in the
Life! section where the article was first published, but in a tiny
column-paragraph (entitled “what it should have been”) on page 4 of
the main section stating that the review was “incomplete” because
the reviewer had “left before the end of the show”.
Recommended by Anonymous Coward: “Shit Times Shitty Standards. “
