With regard to Professor Krauss' post:

I would be very much interested to know why being a good "guide dog" and "guard
dog" is seemingly incompatible with being "watch dog" and sometimes turns the
media into "lap dogs."

One thing that comes to mind is what I see as differences in the idea of "facts"
in the major newspapers between Japan and US, for example.

Reporters in Japan have told me how they have to work hard to make sure they
have accurately conveyed the contents of a press conference, joint interviews,
or statements (muttered by politicians while walking). Thus they compare notes
and put great enthusiasm into reporting the "facts" the following day. I have
the impression that reporting on the background or related information is not
encouraged, and is outside the standard format applied by reporters. Thus, to
get the facts straight, so to say, is valued.

On the other hand, there are very few feature stories, background reviews, and
full length reports, which take a much broader time span and organize more
information, in Japan as compared to the US press. Although I've never measured
them, in general, the length of articles seem to be longer in major US
newspapers than those in Japan. Especially, we do not see "This Week in Review,"
"World in Reveiw" kind of features in Japan. My impression is that reporters in
the US are at more liberty to include background information, related accounts,
and their interpretation into their articles.

One result of this difference in the notion of "facts," I think, makes the
Japanese newspapers good "guide" and "guard" dogs but turn them into "lap dogs."

However, since all this is based on impressions I'd like to hear from those with
different impressions. Also it would be interesting to hear from those who can
read European or Asian papers. And, of course, there should be other factors at
work; such as the kishakurabu, the promotion patterns of journalists, and their
ways to obtain information, etc. On such matters, I now realize I have a lot of
homework to do.

Nobuhiro Hiwatari