Mainstream press goes to town with a bombshell

It appears that most of the mainstream newspapers have graced their front pages with news of DAP Batu Gajah MP Fong 'cili padi' Po Kuan's decision not to contest in the general election.

The Star, for instance, reported that her decision was made due to some crisis in the Perak DAP and that she was being 'forced out of her seat'. The photo of a seemingly disturbed Fong occupied almost half of the front page of the paper.

As if to reinforce this point, the newspaper published a comment made by the former prominent DAP politician Wee Choo Keong, who claimed that in the DAP "potential leaders are marginalised, if not killed of politically". Note the headline for this story on page N3: "Beware the daggers in DAP, says former leader". Daggers obviously don't give one a nice feeling.

Internal party problems, to be sure, are not peculiar to the DAP. Surely, certain component parties of the incumbent BN too have their fair share of problems. The difference is that the opposition parties' internal problems are highlighted and magnified by the mainstream press more often than the BN component parties'. In fact, it is highly likely that if there are problems in certain BN component parties, they would be put under wraps.

Put differently – and especially during a general election campaign – if at all the mainstream media editors allow opposition parties to hit the headlines, it would be for all the 'wrong reasons'.