As I have explained before, I really like watching the weekly highlights from Channel News Asia, in part for its stories about the rest of Asia, but also because of the upbeat, optimistic tone of stories about Singapore.
I'm not cynical about how, it being government owned, it's not as if the positive spin is coming from a completely independent viewpoint. For example, I like the way it continually runs stories that encourages the multicultural tolerance that the nation island depends on. In propaganda terms, I've realised it's like the polar opposite of Fox News: a news and current affairs service devoted to national unity and optimism - the type of channel a benevolent dictator might desire - rather than the cynical, money grubbing operation of an ageing husk of a media billionaire designed to enrich him further by sowing division and rabid partisanship.
That said, I was a little taken about by a recent story which seemed to display a much more cynical line. While I have seen sympathetic stories about migrant workers there before, this one about a Bangladeshi guy who got some fame for a book of poetry, and then (pretty much) let it go to his head, seems to be designed to carry the message "migrant workers - you are here to do hard labour, and don't forget it".
(Mind you, the guy does come across as having a somewhat overinflated view of his artist talents. I have my doubts that he would have known the spin the CNA story would take, though, when he was co-operating with them. And the comments that follow the video on Youtube show that I am not the only one who thought this video was unusually mean-spirited and seemed like a warning to migrant workers.)
The only other thing I don't like about CNA is that I can't embed their Youtube videos.
Update: I was wrong - I can embed their videos, just my old computer at home (Vista powered) won't let me. Here's the story I was talking about:
It should be a happy place. Its the closest thing to a Georgist society the world has. By buying most of the land, and by supplying communist hi-rise in competition with the private sector, yet still keeping the government small, Lee's Singapore found an alternative way to overcoming a lot of the difficulties that Henry George highlighted.
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