Leeward Tilt

Turton writes:

"Lately the strange rightward shift in certain editorials of the Taipei Times has sent any number of people scurrying to their keyboards to ask me WTF is going on with those editorials."

Heh. Aside from the momentary reflection on what sort of person "scurries" and when (as in: sinking ships), I never had any doubt that he was referring to J.M. Cole's editorials simply because his are the only ones that deviate (even if only slightly) from the capital Leftist editorial axioms of the Taipei Times. Why Turton didn't just name Cole, rather than refer obliquely to the "Taipei Times" I don't know: Cole's are the only "unsigned" editorials whose authorship is made known by his republication of them on his blog (where, it must be noted, he disallows all comments - make of that what you will).

I commented on Turton's piece last night, but he censored it today. By my reckoning the following comment would have appeared about halfway down the comments section on this piece at Turton's place, had he not censored it...

There is no "rightward shift" at the Taipei Times or any other sort of "shift", there is only the odd editorial by J.M. Cole which doesn't fit with the general pattern of unending calls for more and more laws and more and more regulations. Today's editorial is a perfect example ("...lawmakers do not make enough laws..."). Dissent from that axiom is no longer even tolerated in the letters pages.

You might go so far as to speculate that the people who work at that place are all dependable capital L Statists, but then (no irony intended) they never take individual responsibility for their opinions in those unsigned editorials. They're like the DPP, but without the human touch of corruption.

I have to admit, I made myself laugh with that last line. But it is annoying when so-called "journalists" like to strike poses ranging from trumpeters of "majority opinion" to "justice launderers" whilst offering no more receipt for their authority than an anonymous Internet-troll.

I tried to shift the editorial line of the Taipei Times by sheer force of letters alone, and, perhaps not surprisingly, it didn't work. I then tried to erase some of J.M. Cole's bad Leftist habits (his reflexive use of the tautological "social justice" for instance), but I am doubtful that has had much effect either. So, most of what I've tried to do through this blog has basically come to nothing.

Anyway... there's plenty of other things in life that need fixing.