- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
The first chapter begins with an account of how Cheong was appointed to his job as editor-in-chief in 1986. This was not a private dinner with a publisher or a board meeting or even the result of a secret ballot at a conference of editors.
Instead, Cheong describes how he was summoned by Chandra Das on a plane to Burma with the words “The boss wants to see you”. He was given a seat in the first class cabin next to the then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Goh wanted him to take over the editorial leadership of the Straits Times (ST) from Peter Lim who had been found wanting.
Later on, Cheong describes Lee Kuan Yew’s response to the online question “Who paid for the flying hospital for his wife” as marking the legitimization of online media. Cheong acknowledges that the days of traditional media are numbered worldwide, even in Singapore. He quotes the PM Lee Hsien Loong as admitting that he cannot persuade his own daughter to read the news pages of the ST.
Cheong is dismissive of the online alternative media but he devotes a paragraph to responding to Seelan Palay’s film “One Nation Under Lee” specifically by explaining that the ISD agents hired by the ST were not sent by the government, they were in fact, according to Cheong, willingly brought in by himself.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7971
Instead, Cheong describes how he was summoned by Chandra Das on a plane to Burma with the words “The boss wants to see you”. He was given a seat in the first class cabin next to the then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Goh wanted him to take over the editorial leadership of the Straits Times (ST) from Peter Lim who had been found wanting.
Later on, Cheong describes Lee Kuan Yew’s response to the online question “Who paid for the flying hospital for his wife” as marking the legitimization of online media. Cheong acknowledges that the days of traditional media are numbered worldwide, even in Singapore. He quotes the PM Lee Hsien Loong as admitting that he cannot persuade his own daughter to read the news pages of the ST.
Cheong is dismissive of the online alternative media but he devotes a paragraph to responding to Seelan Palay’s film “One Nation Under Lee” specifically by explaining that the ISD agents hired by the ST were not sent by the government, they were in fact, according to Cheong, willingly brought in by himself.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7971
