Comments on: A Moment of Silence for WaiWai.

By: Hinano

Hinano — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:23:50 +0000

karenai> Thanks for the explanation. You’re right MDN didn’t explain that these were from tabloids kind like “STAR” in the US which is fulla pics of celebrities in their bikinis and Britney Spears Some stories really did seem wacko though that I didn’t always believe them but none the less they were entertaining to read

By: karenai_hana

karenai_hana — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:11:23 +0000

The reason that WaiWai was canceled was that the column was translating stories, most of them sensational and false, from tabloid weeklies (shukanshi) without putting them in their proper context.
Each WaiWai story has a picture of the cover of the weekly it is from, but anyone who isn’t familiar with these weeklies would not be aware that these are unreliable tabloids that regularly feature fake stories, alongside real investigative journalism and gravure spreads! Not that Japan doesn’t have issues, but having these fake stories published in the English website of a newspaper without properly explaining where these stories are from is problematic because these stories are being passed off as real news. And The MDN statement does a horrible job at explaining this.

Anyone who is interested about this and about shukanshi can read more here:
http://neojaponisme.com/2007/09/20/how-the-world-learns-about-japan/
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4958
http://meta.neojaponisme.com/2008/06/22/byebye-to-waiwai/

There’s also a book in English called “A Public Betrayed” about shukanshi:
http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000273.html
I’ve read parts of it, but I can’t recommend it because the pro-cult slant the book takes in the middle is eerie and borders on propaganda.

So as much as I enjoy reading WaiWai once in a while, I don’t think I will miss it that much.

(Sorry for the long comment that has nothing to do with anime! I love this blog. Keep ranting! )

By: Dorian Cornelius Jasper

Dorian Cornelius Jasper — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:09:51 +0000

Dear Japan,

Don’t worry. We already know how silly you are.

Signed,
ZAA WARUDO

OXOXOXOX <3

By: EvilDevil

EvilDevil — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:17:30 +0000

and thus ends a golden age… coming up next the dark ages…

By: Di Gi Kazune

Di Gi Kazune — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:30:55 +0000

Cannot thing anything to say but:

~~ aa~~ dame~~~ etc2 etc2

By: Hinano

Hinano — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:33:28 +0000

K, Japan, I know you want the world to think you’re perfect,

Yea basically

By: Senna

Senna — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:19:59 +0000

The worst part of this to me (other than no longer being able to read WaiWai, which I also enjoyed) is that part of the reason it was canceled was because Japan doesn’t want the world reading about some of its issues (the whole WaiWai was “debauching Japan by sending around the world information that could be misunderstood”). K, Japan, I know you want the world to think you’re perfect, but really … I enjoy reading about how silly you are!

By: DrmChsr0

DrmChsr0 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:47:11 +0000

[sarcasm]
I guess humanity’s wrongs are not appropriate for a daily paper.

I for one welcome our propagandist overlords. (I have been socially engineered to welcome them)
[/sarcasm]

By: DS

DS — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:01:44 +0000

Where do you get these phones? Maybe I could get one as an accessory for Kooh….

By: Scheris

Scheris — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:07:51 +0000

∑(O_O；) OMG, I’ll never look at cellphones the same way ever again.

Too bad about the news.