Strait's Facts

I'm starting a new 'regular' column today. Well, 'regular' in the sense that it will continue till I get bored, and its frequency will depend on my mood or the availability of content. I'm sick of the news reported in Singapore's newspapers. I don't subscribe to any local papers (not counting of course the free tabloid 'Today', which I read for the occasional mr brown or Neil Humphreys column), and get all my news online from the BBC, Google News and various blogs.

However, courtesy of my company's corporate account, I have access to the online edition of the Straits Times, and trawl the site often, looking for the all too frequent interesting letter to the editor. I will blog about this separately (perhaps).

My biggest gripe with the ST is the complete disconnect between its front page headlines and those on other newspapers around the world. For example, the big news items today were the ongoing unrest in Uzbekistan and the flap about Newsweek withdrawing the story about the Koran's desecration in Guantanamo Bay. Neither of these made it anywhere in the ST, forget the front page. Given the significant population of Muslims in Singapore, and the fact that Malaysia had issued an official protest, I would have expected at least the second story to have at least warranted a mention here. But no - perhaps it would have inflamed racial and religious tensions in oh-so-sensitive Singapore.

However, the front page did cover the following shocking stories: School link to eating disorders possible and Lawyers losing interest in crime cases. And headlining the 'World' section was Britain wages war on culture of disrespect.

So this column will henceforth contrast the "straight facts" and the "Strait's facts". Headlines only... (I don't want to get sued for copyright, and while they're at it, defamation). And here and there I will pop in a precis of a 'Forum' letter that I find amusing.