Mainstream media fight "unethical media" - The World according to Zam

Are we missing something here? Check out page 6 of today’s (20 March) New Straits Times under the headline, “War on unethical media reporting will aid BN”. In the news report, Information Ministry media adviser and BN candidate for the Merbok parliamentary constituency, Zainudin Maidin, was quoted as saying that the “commitment of the mainstream print and electronic media to fight the unethical media” would help BN make big electoral gains.

The mainstream media are fighting the “unethical media”? We wonder sometimes whether the logic of Zam, as he’s popularly known (and who incidentally also has a Brad Pitt-phobia), escapes us easily. Is he trying to suggest that the mainstream media have been pretty ethical in their coverage of the election campaigning?

Haven’t we seen in the past one week or so the unbridled use of the mainstream media by the incumbent BN? Haven’t we noticed the sometimes misleading political ads and reporting in the mainstream media? Haven’t we witnessed the deliberate marginalizing of the opposing parties (to the BN) in almost all of the mainstream media coverage?

By the way, can an election candidate like Zam still hold an official position (i.e. media adviser) with the Information Ministry?