Kit Siang and Karpal described as "ageing"

K Parkaran in an analysis piece on the DAP in page 14 of The Star had this to say today: "Lim (Kit Siang) and Karpal Singh are ageing and some say it could be their last election."

Hmm, funny, Abdullah Badawi and, for that matter, Mahathir, aren't spring chickens either. But I don't remember The Star ever describing either of them as ageing - I don't think it would dare!

Let's be a bit consistent, okay, and play fair.

I also note The Star had to eat humble pie in reporting on the front page today that Wan Azizah had actually won after describing her as "Out" in yesterday's paper. And after reporting unquestioningly on the front page yesterday that the BN had claimed victory in Kelantan, the paper had to report today that oops, err... PAS had actually won Kelantan.

Blog visitor Jaii adds: "The Star doesn't even bother to apologise for its misleading unofficial results."

Jaii, it wouldn't have been so bad had they clearly stated that they were just unofficial results and recounts were underway. Then readers would know that the final results were still not known.

Blog visitor Zhang chips in: "I think the premature and incorrect news was not malicious in anyway because the voting part of the election was over, so there was hardly any political gain to be made. It has more to do with 'scooping', that is, to be the first to break the news. This is entirely a professional aspiration, but obviously it annoyed party faithfuls for its incorrectness."

Anyway, the paper is full of the "landslide" news. Wong Sulong talks of a "new era" in his "comment piece" on page 3 but never once does he mention the human rights situation in the country. Are repressive laws not an issue? Are human rights not relevant in this "new era"? Neither does he mention the disastrous performance of the Election Commission. Ooops, sorry, no negative news allowed in this "new era" except if it involves the opposition.