Sensational press in Thailand?

All self-respecting newspapers, anywhere in the world, but certainly the newspaper with the largest circulation in a given country, have a responsibility to their subscribers and readers to publish truthful news articles. 

Articles that the public can benefit from and are interesting. In the event of a crisis or disaster, the reader counts on support and advice from the newspaper.

Itchy vagina

The latter is perhaps the reason why Thai Rath, the Thai newspaper with the largest daily circulation, last week issued a warning to all women in Bangkok with a smashing headline on the front page. The headline read: “Beware the threat of an itchy vagina!”

Hey, an itchy vagina? Is that all? Is there nothing else for the women of Bangkok to watch out for? What about those masses of water, which are ominously approaching them, but also the men and our beloved katoeys? Shouldn't they worry about the Flood, but just watch, as the paper reports, their own special body part?

Well, dear reader, put this news in a good perspective. Last Tuesday was an anxious day. Areas in Bangkok such as MoChit and Ratchadaphisek were surrounded by water and once again the wet sword of Damocles hung over the heads of the people of downtown Bangkok. Life in the city almost came to a standstill, no schools and certainly no business. And amidst the fear, nervousness and rage that this threat brought, Thai Rath chose without hesitation to direct the front page news to the vaginas of the women of Bangkok.

Thai rat

Before I go any further, I should explain that Thai Rath is not only known for her astoundingly high circulation figures, but can also be compared to, say, The Sunday Sport in England, which recently ran a front-page story: “Colonel Gaddafi was a woman ”. That paper went one step further a week later with a story about a Libyan sheep herder, who claimed to have spent a night of "unbridled passion" with the late dictator. (Before he died, of course).

Here in Thailand we have about 10 Thai newspapers, of which Thai Rath is the largest with a daily circulation of 800.000 newspapers. Even if you can't read Thai, Thai Rath's sensationalism is easy to spot from the front page. On the front page pictures of one-eyed babies, a five-legged buffalo or, more casually, a jackfruit in the shape of a naked woman. People also like corpses, if a car accident doesn't make it to the front page of Thai Rath with pictures, then it's not worth it. Accidents involving decapitated corpses are particularly fond, although it must be said that the newspaper is increasingly obscuring gory details in photos for fear of psychological influences on children.

Death

Too late, unfortunately. At least three generations of Thais have grown up with this kind of photo during their breakfast of kuayteo noodles. There's nothing like a breakfast, bent over the newspaper, looking at photos of love triangle victims or of drunk drivers who mistook their gas pedal for a cigarette lighter. If you die before your time, get it on the front page of Thai Rath.

Back to last Tuesday. In fact, it was just an ordinary day in a big city that was about to be engulfed in a sea of ​​dirty, chemically contaminated water. There is no shortage of news, because a lot happened. In Ratchadaphisek, sewage from the system poured into the streets, the Mor Chit bus station was flooded and the government announced a new commission to develop a good plan to keep the feet of all Thais dry in the future.

Running sewage…., motor traffic paralyzed….., an ingenious master plan…..and what did Thai Rath think was the most important news?

Perhaps the newspaper had in mind that song about an itchy ear that rocked the nation about two months ago, because that ear could metaphorically mean another part of the body. Or was it just an idea of ​​a bunch of male journalists, who came up with something in the newsroom to cause some excitement in this time of crisis. I don't even blame them, they too are slowly suffering from water fatigue. You can report on the floods in all sorts of ways day in and day out, Thai Rath had even banned the headless victims of car accidents and sexy jackfruits to the inside pages, so it was time for some excitement and last Tuesday Thai Rath had the solution.

Plastic underwear

The article accompanying the aforementioned headline says, among other things, “There are many dangerous bacteria in the polluted water and if a woman walks in water up to her waist, they can enter her body through the vagina. Plastic underwear is therefore recommended and if that is not possible, then those women should wash themselves well “from below” with soap.” I can already see the journalist drooling when making such an article.

Maybe I'm just too hard on the newspaper. Maybe they were right, because didn't I say at the beginning that newspapers should give good advice in case of a crisis? And the advice was constructive, if somewhat stinging, wasn't it?

And even then, were those other news items of that day so important? Water from the sewers in Ratchadaphisek, old news for people in Bang Bua Thong and in the Nava Nakorn Industrial Area, traffic jams at Mor Chit, don't we have that every day? And then that high-level committee, are there people on it who are more intelligent than the humble government officials we have now, are they in a higher chair, do they have Evian water on the table instead of water from Samut Prakan? And have you already read which three main points will be included in the master plan? 1. Identify the current problems and propose short-term solutions, 2. proposal for a general clean-up of the flooded areas, 3. proposal for preventive measures to avoid disasters in the future. Is that high-level thinking?

Frontpage

So in the end the choice for the front page of the day wasn't so bad, though, why just mention the vaginas? It's about our male tools, if they don't run any risks then with those bacteria. Shouldn't Thai Rath also warn us men to put on plastic underpants and use a lot of soap?

No other Thai newspaper has taken over this news, the competitors were too busy with the smart ideas of that committee and especially with the risk that the house of Yingluck Shinawatra could be flooded. And the latter is a subject that I am glad Thai Rath has not reported on.

Written by Andrew Biggs in the November 13, 2011 Bangkok Post and (sometimes freely) translated by Gringo