Programmers of political talk television shows are facing pressure from consumer groups to improve the quality of their shows.
A group of consumers launched a campaign to demand that advertisers withdraw running TV commercials in the so called "spat talk shows" by boycotting their advertised products.
Starting in May, a number of consumers posted a notice on Web sites such as Taiwan Tea Party and a media-watching group "Against the Media" to urge consumers to boycott products advertised on the debate talk shows and call-in shows in a bid to push the program producers to cancel the shows.
Participants in the campaign expressed their anger on-line saying that there was too much provocative sentiment expressed by talk show hosts and guest speakers -- especially confrontations between pan-blue and pan-green camps -- that the programs were destructive of the quality of the nation's media.
Talk shows produced by cable TV station TVBS' News Night Club hosted by Lee Yen-chiou (
TV hosts of the above-mentioned shows are known for their anti-DPP sentiment or pro-unification stance.
"By organizing the campaign to call consumers to boycott products advertised on these programs, we hope to cut the financial sources of these malicious programs so as to ensure the TV audience's rights for quality TV programs," the initiator of the campaign said.
Other participants in the activity claimed the campaign was an affirmation of Taiwan's civil awareness as the audience is beginning to understand that the TV shows should be free of political interference.
Activity initiators sent e-mails to advertisers in the programs, demanding that they revoke their advertising budgets from the programs.
As of yesterday, several companies had given positive responses to the calls for boycotting "spat programs" including I-Mei Foods Co, Brand's chicken essence, RT-Mart and Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Company, which had decided to withdraw their advertisements from the News Night Club.
For example, RT-Mart had replied to the campaign by saying it had decided to cancel all of its scheduled advertisements on the News Night Club starting from June 6, and will delegate its advertising company to review the TV show's ratings so as to adjust advertisement budget allocations.
Hu Yu-wei (
The campaign reflected that the talk shows were too narrow in selecting their topics as political subjects were overly concentrated, Hu said.
"Public policy issues are as important as political issues. It may be because discussion for public policy is not provocative enough that such issues are rarely discussed," Hu said.
Hsu said that guest speakers invited to the shows were usually lawmakers representing political parties or party officials. The guests are more often more concerned about defending the party line rather than the merits and flaws of the issue, he said.
"These discussions can be very confrontational, but the programs are not conducive to educating people about controversial issues at all," Hu said.
In addition, the repetition of the same invited guest speakers is so high that the audience always sees the same faces engaging in intense debates with rival politicians, a phenomenon that would drive away those who could otherwise offer constructive suggestions to the issue, Hu said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat