Orthodoxy and "lettuce leaves": Free but cultured

(Baonghean) - I really like reading the "lettuce leaf" newspapers here. Why not "tabloid"? First, let me try to define what a tabloid is: Tabloid is the general name for newspapers that often publish sensational news or news related to famous people, such as news about robbery - murder - rape, love scandals of stars A, B, C...

Don't think that no one reads tabloids, on the contrary, people read them a lot, so maybe that's why the cabbage garden is getting greener and greener. Why? Because life is complicated, busy, and full of things to worry about: waking up in the morning and seeing the president of some African country being assassinated, the economic crisis and the risk of bankruptcy of the US government making Obama free to go into the kitchen to make charity cakes... All big and heavy stories, so reading a little bit of nonsense news is called feeding the brain a little... cabbage adds vitamins and entertainment! Reading is just reading, no one believes in the cabbage garden. Let's be honest, every day I walk around the cabbage garden, reading the news to kill time, reading to mock the garden owner, but do you think I believe in that cabbage sprayed with pesticides? No way!

So what is a “lettuce leaf” newspaper? Actually, this is a term I made up myself. The thing is, there are two types of newspapers here: free and sold at kiosks. Famous newspapers like The Gioi, Giai Phong, Chu Thap Do of course have to be paid for (the price is about 1€60 (equivalent to nearly 50 thousand VND). The rest are newspapers that no one abroad knows, for example, Metro News, Morning Brief, 5 Minutes... are distributed for free everywhere at train stations and buses, which I often take to cover the dining table to prevent food from spilling on the table. Worse, my neighbors take the whole book every day to cover the cat's... poop. "Cheap is bad", needless to say, the difference in information quality between the two types of newspapers mentioned above.

Skimming through the two newspapers, one side has very serious news, politics, economics, education, the other side has more than half of the newspaper devoted to advertising, photos published haphazardly, only a few short articles. At least the "lettuce leaf" newspaper is better than the tabloid newspaper in that, although the information is presented superficially and carelessly, it is still real information. It is just that the "lettuce leaf" newspaper has a different way of selecting information to emphasize than the mainstream newspaper, the more sensational and impressive news is given priority on the cover, large photos,... much information in the mainstream newspaper is also published in the "lettuce leaf" newspaper, although with limited capacity and depth. Therefore, the "lettuce leaf" newspaper is very suitable for people who do not have much time to read the newspaper but still have a basic grasp of the current situation.

Now, talking about freedom, many journalists (or garden owners?) in our country criticize this person or that person with somewhat harsh words, then loudly say "in the name of freedom of speech"... I think those people have never even touched a foreign newspaper, regardless of whether it is a "lettuce leaf" newspaper or a mainstream newspaper, but still speak up to fight for freedom of speech "like in foreign countries", then it must be said that they are very good? Because although French President Hollande, as well as Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac or any other president have been favored to appear in newspapers in satirical and serious criticisms, journalists never fabricate or slander anything, let alone insult or use uncultured language.

Because the writer has the right to speak, but the person being written about has the right to be respected, whether that person is a president, a head of state, or a worker. And because the reader has the right to read cultured and educated words, because the influence of mass media culture on people's ideology and behavior is enormous.

In short, being a journalist means doing culture and learning culture. A writer does culture for the readers, which is also learning culture for himself: Speaking and writing culture is how to convey information in an impartial manner, without intertwining personal interests and feelings, without negatively expressing one's thoughts and falling into the fertilizer pit for the cabbage garden. You like freedom? Go ahead, but you must be cultured!

Hai Trieu