In a report of a discussion of social media and news, Pravit Rojanaphruk makes some interesting comments on gibberish propagated by several “columnists” who are popular with the anti-democratic movement.
He points out that these social media promote the notion that the “foreign media is gullible in its coverage of Thai politics.”
PPT has noticed that this theme has been pretty much constant amongst social media sites and in the mainstream media, including The Nation and the Bangkok Post. The latter often reflect the social media anti-democratic activism. Certain Western “commentators” get considerably more attention than they deserve on Thai social media simply because they engage in the same conspiratorial speculation as those associated with the anti-democratic movement or because they repeat the rants of the movement. Most of these Western commentators are extremists who write on global issues on their own blogs speaking to tiny audiences of like-minded fringe fanatics. Yet anti-democratic social media give them a platform in Thailand. Indeed, the Democrat Party even hires some of them.
Pravit cited the “example of Andrew Biggs, a well-known Australian columnist, who wrote on the Bangkok Post that CNN is misled to think that the government is being persecuted by a mob.” In fact, Biggs is an Australian who would not be a columnist anywhere but Thailand. He writes trite nonsense for the children of the elite and reflects that group’s addled sense of entitlement and narrow interests.
But as Pravit points out, “since the discussion of political crisis provided by Thai media is severely limited by lese majeste laws … the foreign media is far better equipped to report about the crisis in an insightful manner.” He adds: “The foreign media are more honest.”
As for claims by the Thai media that politics in Thailand was not “class warfare,” Pravit observed that “80% of middle class and the elite are on the anti-Thaksin and royalist faction, … while 80% of working class or lower social classes are on Mr. Thaksin′s side.”
Pointedly he added: “Also, if there′s no class, then why are we still crawling down in front of His Majesty the King?”
Political Prisoners in Thailand 