Thursday, August 27, 2015

Journalism class

The Japanese guy is right. No secret deal on the Collins sub replacement.

JAPANESE officials again have denied a secret deal has already been done with the federal government to build the next fleet of Australian submarines.

A delegation of government, industry and military officials says it is currently preparing its bid under the competitive evaluation process and expects to present its final submission by the end of November.

Defence ministry spokesman Masaki Ishikawa said Japan was not responsible for the speculation that a deal had already been struck.

“There is absolutely no such secret deal,” he told a briefing in Adelaide on Wednesday, repeating what former Japanese Self Defence Force chief of staff Admiral Takashi Saito told The Advertiser in an interview yesterday.

Because if he said anything else he would be fired.

The Japanese language is wonderful. The indirectness that is direct, the vague that can be strong. The strong which can be weak.

It isn't the kind of language or culture for cowboy diplomacy or the quick-sell.

No matter what you see on TV.

Back at home, you can see that there is reasonable doubt on how the Australian PM and his team are running this effort.

In this situation, a real newspaper editor of a real newspaper that followed journalism practice, would look at the reporter and state that there is a hell of a lot more work to do on this story. That, in its present form, isn't even worth publishing.

Where, the reporter says, "the police chief has stated that...".

And the editor throws it back at him with a don't bother me look,"Go talk to some real cops."


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