Lame Excuse Of The Week

So you're a spokesman in Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, and the county's president issues a directive that no reporters will be allowed to cover this month's live-fire military drills.  It's your job to go in front of the media and give a reason.

Now, I suppose you COULD tell the truth:  The KMT government is deathly afraid that coverage will ruin the feel-good China vibe they've worked so hard to cultivate in Taiwan, and might furthermore make a few communist party Mandarins in Beijing scowl at 'em at the next KMT-CCP inter-party cooperation conference.  (No telling WHAT might happen then.)

Obviously, telling the truth makes your boss, Mr. Ma, look all spineless and cowardly.  So it's off the table.

Which leaves you with another option:  Why not plead that the necessity of military secrecy makes coverage impossible?  (Heck, some of us might even be disposed to view that one sympathetically.)

But no, that's out, too.  The scheduled exercises we're talking about have been covered every year for a few years now.  Exactly what's changed between this year and the last?

Well, well.  If you can't tell the truth, and you can't tell a lie, you might as well get hep to the jive and deliver a rationalization that's fully in keeping with the spirit of the times:

The Ministry of National Defense has said it would not televise any part of the drill as Ma’s predecessors did. Nor would the ministry invite reporters or other guests to observe the drill, which the ministry said was to save energy in line with government policy.  [emphasis added]

Reporters will be banned — because the government wants to SAVE THE PLANET.

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