(Rant) Media business is now pure business, period

The most read news articles in local newspapers today are perhaps those about the alleged sex photos of pop singers Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) and Edison Chen (陳冠希). Even the highly political Wen Wei Po (文匯報) has given a lengthy report. One newspaper also states that a network traffic jam had occurred because of the massive downloading of these photos by HK netizens.

Some commentators or bloggers criticise the HK public for their obsessions in celebrity sex photos, but I think such huge interests are understandable and aren't uncommon in other countries. Like it or not, news business is business. Even the most serious newspaper has to attract more readers and secure its income.

What disappoints me, however, is local newspapers' neglect of more 'serious' news. Two days ago was the 57th anniversary of the death of Carl Mannerheim. As far as I know, no local newspaper had reported this. Fine. 57 is not divisible by ten, Finland is not a superpower and our professional reporters may have never heard about her great president's name. But today is the 60th anniversary of Gandhi's death, and apparently none of our newspapers has a single word on this (at least Ming Pao, Apple Daily, Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao haven't). Well, Gandhi may not have a perfect record, but he was the one who had inspired many great personalities, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. And our newspapers have nothing to say about him?! I don't want to believe this, but this is real.

These days, I find that I do tend to read more 'entertainment news' than serious news. Perhaps both the newspapers and I are no longer serious about news. When news becomes entertainment, the only times that we can read about Gandhi on newspapers anymore may be when the members of the Gandhi family are suing each other over someone's will.