TAIWAN: Journalism profs show tycoon the door

National Chengchi University was happy to receive a bucket of cash from EMG media tycoon Gary Wang, but one small group of professors at the school resisted the allure of lucre

Taipei Times
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

By Jewel Huang

When it comes to professional ethics, the Tom Cruise movie Jerry Maguire may not have written the book after all, judging from the abuse of that movie's catchphrase.

Two weeks ago, journalism professors at National Chengchi University turned down funding for student scholarships offered by the Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) because of their irritation at EMG president Gary Wang's use of the line made famous by the movie, "Show me the money."

As the director of National Chengchi University's School of Mass Communication, the most distinguished school of journalism in the country, Weng Hsiu-chi said the school could not accept EMG's money since Wang's values were unacceptable if not inconceivable.

"Wang stresses the importance of making money, and the slogan `money talks' is his idea of how to run a news channel." Weng said.

"Wang respects neither journalistic professionalism nor journalists themselves, as far as we know," she said.

 "If we hadn't rejected EMG's offer, how could we educate our students to better steer the Fourth Estate into the future?" Weng said.

The repulsion felt by journalism professors toward Wang dates back to an interview in Business Weekly last month, she said.

In the interview, Wang discussed his attitude toward running EMG, a media conglomerate that includes the ETTV news channels, home shopping networks and a broadband service.

The conglomerate earned Wang NT$35 billion last y ear.

He emphasized the principle that "making money is everything" and said he always reminded his reporters that news that didn't make money was worthless.

"Media are merchandise and so is news," Wang said bluntly. "Don't tell me about your professionalism, just show me the money."

Wang went on to mock a respected professor at the School of Mass Communication, Hsu Chia-shih, saying that none of Hsu's students had succeeded by writing stories like the author of the Harry Potter books.

But Wang could not name the apprentice magician's famous author -- J.K. Rowling.

On May 3, journalism professors overwhelmingly voted down the NT$360,000 that would have been distributed over three years to outstanding students under the stipend's title, "Gary's King of Home Shopping Scholarship."

But the stand taken by the professors was not representative of the rest of the university. Wang had attempted to donate NT$5 million to high-achieving students across nine schools at the university, and eight schools accepted.

The School of Mass Communication stood alone in its refusal.

University president Cheng Jei-cheng told journalism professors that he respected their decision, but also made it clear that the rights of other schools would not be sacrificed by their action.

Accordingly, a donation ceremony was held on May 4.

Cheng made no mention of the School of Mass Communication's refusal and that it was the only school that did not accept EMG's largess. For his part, Wang refused to attend the ceremony after learning of the journalism professors' boycott.

Spearheading the school's snub of EMG, Sofia Wu, a professor at the department of broadcasting and television, wrote a letter titled, "Here comes EMG's money, and there goes our dignity," saying that EMG attempted to exploit the school's reputation by donating money which would have no beneficial impact on the school's programs.

"Wang is notorious for his business philosophy, which is that morality can be sacrificed as long as news is profitable," Wu said.

"Wang came clean with his view that for journalism, money is the savior," she said.

Wu said it made her very uncomfortable to think that her students would receive EMG money.

"I had the feeling that Wang wanted the School of Mass Communication to endorse the `legitimacy' and `professionalism' of his media monopoly," she said. "He wanted to make us a living advertisement. We had no choice but to boycott him."

Wu's stance has won considerable support among faculty members and students, who showed their support by e-mail.

Lin Yuan-hui, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, drafted the protest against EMG to university authorities.

He said the reason why they rejected the money was because the school's definition of "excellence" was incompatible with Wang's.

"The EMG news channels have set a very bad example, with a great deal of sensationalist and yellow [prurient] journalism," Lin said. "I don't think we can educate `outstanding students' who are able to meet only their standards."

"If we went ahead and accepted the money, the price that our school would have to pay would be a little too high," Lin added.

Educators in journalism must serve as a safety net and as a last line of defense for professionalism, Lin said.

"If we fail to protect this last fortress of idealism, how can we be role models for our students?" Lin said.

"It is very frustrating that the media has becomes a source of social instability," he said.

"We have the responsibility, therefore, to inculcate in young journalists a very important lesson in journalistic ethics, which is that you can't buy dignity and you can't buy professionalism," he said.

Date Posted: 5/18/2004