Gadfly Posted August 14, 2012 Report Share Posted August 14, 2012 Yesterday morning an alleged protest over Thaksin's visit to an LA restaurant was major black bolded news in the Thai press. All sorts of comments about extradition double standards (has Thailand even requested it?) and claims that yellow shirts were arrested (in the comments section). You would have thought, reading the Thai press, this was a major international event that certainly would have been reported in the US? But when I checked the LA Times and ran a few Google searches I could not find one - not one - report in the US press about this protest. Did anyone in LA - let's enlarge that: anyone in the US - see any local reports about this major diplomatic incident and protest, as described by the Thai press? There was a blurry YouTube video and pictures in the Thai press, so I am assuming this wasn't totally a farce (but I could be persuaded otherwise), but what does this tell us about the significance, or rather insignificance, of Thai politics in the larger mosaic of US news? Thailand is not that important? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted August 14, 2012 Report Share Posted August 14, 2012 << According to Political Prisoners of Thailand,"It is not new for there to be competing red and yellow shirts in the U.S. Both groups have strong followings there. Yellow shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul spent considerable energy in developing PAD groups, particularly in LA. This was partly about selling some television and partly about fundraising for PAD...." >> My link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pai mei Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 But when I checked the LA Times and ran a few Google searches I could not find one - not one - report in the US press about this protest. Did anyone in LA - let's enlarge that: anyone in the US - see any local reports about this major diplomatic incident and protest, as described by the Thai press? I'm currently staying a couple KM from Thai town. Didn't know about it till I read it here - haha - otherwise would've went to take pics. Sent it to two Thai expats living here, one a grad student very involved with things going on around Thai town. Her response was this: "Believe it or not, I am just back from Thai town I went there to dine & do grocery shopping just about 3 hours ago I can't believe this whole event happened just a day before Everything was so calm and normal today" In other words, she didn't know about it. My other friend just said "mai bpen rai" haha. Definitely a non-event here. Also FYI, Thai town is a small part of East Hollywood, and it's a little rundown. The Thai plaza described in the article is actually an old strip mall that's small in size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baa99 Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Nothing in the morning or evening news on the east coast. The drought, olympics, and Syria pretty much dominated the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pasathai1 Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 there was a spot on aljezra and Russia today sat channels , American news felt it necessary to play it down. ( or admit giving a visa to a world class criminal) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 In Froglais ... [Link removed - KS] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boo Radley Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 A couple of Youtube videos of the event. The intro to one of them suggests that due to safety fears the LA Police suggested Thaksin resort to a live phone-in instead which he seemed to do for 20 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pai mei Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 In Froglais ... [Link removed - KS] Goodness gracious, you have a very errrr, interesting reading list there Flash. I couldn't see anything on the Thaksin LA excursion, but I did scroll down and click a random link, got this: [Link removed - KS] Just a wee bit hysterical. If that is any representation of the 'other' side, I'm a little empathetic with the government being lax with Thaksin. Ps. KS, take this down or delete the link if it goes beyond what's appropriate/acceptable posting. And back to OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 I think both links are a little bit problematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadfly Posted August 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 OK, unless I am missing something, I am seeing links to Thai political sites about Thaksin or his visit to LA, but nothing from any main stream news source in LA? Indeed, nothing from any news source in LA itself. And nothing from a US news source. Is this right? I also asked several friends in LA about this, and not one of them had heard about it. One of them saw my linked, did some Google searches and linked me back to the Thai language "The Manager". She was clearly trying to be helpful, but this is not a US source. It sounds as though this really was a non-event in LA and the Thai press, for whatever reason, played it up as a major event in the US for its domestic audience in Thailand. OK, I guess the next question is why the Thai press does this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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