Intriguing traces of similarity...

Last night when I was sitting in the MRT train on the way home and flipping through the Taipei Times, my jaw almost dropped when my eyes landed on the day's editorial. How so?? Well, please follow the steps and read on.

Step one: If you haven't read my posting on Monday March 27 yet, please do. You can scroll down to the article below this one and scroll up when you finish. Or if you are feeling lazy as it's Friday (I'll cut you some slacks), you can click here.

Step two: Read this editorial published on the page 2 of Taipei Times on Thursday March 30. Please pay special attention to the highlighted sentences.


Now, tell me. Do you sense many similarities between the lines? If it still looks vague to you, allow me to do some comparisons.

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Jen said, "...Regrettably, I think some of the news crew may well enjoy a promising career in producing the Taiwan version of American idols, if they decide not to follow the political beat." --> implying that the political news in Taiwan were presented like entertainment news.

Taipei Times said, "... magnification of Ma, ... into a myth, and the migration of the country's political scene into the realm of the entertainment sector."

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Jen said, "...While behaving unsophisticated is one thing, acting completely stupid is really way over the limit a TV audience can bear."

Taipei Times said, "... Behaving unprofessionally is one thing, but acting like groupies oversteps the limit."

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Jen said, "...This phenomenon peaked when I saw (on ETTV or CTITV) a group of Taiwan reporters surrounding Ma Ying-Jeou and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in their meeting. Not only did the news clips look more like a fan club event than a talk between mayors...."

Taipei Times said, "... Groups of reporters warmed around Ma to get his signature, looking more like members of a fan club than professional journalists on assignment."

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Jen said, "..., a reporter even concluded the news by asking Newsome the following question: "Do you think Ma Ying-Jeou is handsome? Geez, do you think that's what the audience in Taiwan want to know? If ETTV or CTITV would send someone all the way to the US just to ask such a stupid question..."

Taipei Times said, "...One reporter thought that the question Taiwanese TV viewers really wanted Newsome to answer was: 'Do you think Ma Ying-jeou is handsome?' Did the TV stations really send reporters all the way to the US just to ask such a stupid question?"

Pffff, that's really a lot of words to type... :s Since you've reached this far, I reckon that you have also sensed many of the similarities between my posting on 03/27 and Taipei Times' editorial on 03/30. That's why I was so surprised and kept wondering what could be the reasons behind that. Well, after much analysis and reasoning by deduction when I rested my beautiful head (;oP) on the pillow last night, I thought of three possibilities:

Possibility one: Jen is actually the author of this editorial and she works for Taipei Times. She’s just playing mysterious. And to save time, she expanded her positing on the blog into an editorial as she had to go to a dinner date on Wednesday March 29.

Possibility two: The wise think alike. The author of this editorial and Jen happened to see the same news clip on the same TV channel and felt the urge to express their opinion. They are not only alike in logic but also in their rhetoric and sequence of paragraph structuring.

Possibility three: The author of this editorial saw Jen’s posting on this blog, liked her opinions and decided to “integrate” her ideas into this editorial. But he/she forgot to ask Jen in advance whether she agrees.

Now, which one of the above is true?