TV Asahi Quiz Show cooks up Fake Blogs for Clues

Posted on January 13th, 2009 by Masaru IKEDA
tv-asahi
Tokyo-headquartered private TV broadcaster TV-Asahi used fake blog sites on its quiz show, fabricated by the program's production staff as a real news source for the show's questions, and as a result, the broadcaster is being heavily criticized by audiences and TV watchdogs.

The show was broadcast nationwide in Japan during last weekend's prime time, and is a quiz show investigating whether superstitions and conventional beliefs actually work in real life.    The anchorperson introduced six blog websites as examples of information collected via the Internet, which were presented as possible clues to the questions in the show.

TV-Asahi acknowledged the suspicion that the blog sites introduced in the program were fake, and it apologized for the fraud.

TV-Asahi is well-known as the broadcaster that world media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Softbank founder Masayoshi Son attempted to buy a major stake in a dozen years ago.   Also, the broadcaster is infamous due to another scandal from two decades ago, in which it used actresses portraying crime victims in interview videos for news programming, a first in the Japanese TV industry's 50-year history.

Author Information  Masaru IKEDA has co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms in Tokyo. He has been contributing serial columns to nationwide newspapers and IT periodicals, also he's currently serving as tech consultant for several web companies. His biography is here. His private blog is here.

Tags: Japan, News // 5 Comments »

  • http://techielobang.com/blog/2009/01/19/fake-blogs-get-tv-asahi-into-trouble/ TechieLobang – News, Tips & Tricks – Get Updated on Technology Plus All Other Interesting Things

    You can read the Full Story Here.

  • http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2009/01/tv-asahi-caught-making-up-fake-blogs-for-source-material.html Lisa

    TV Asahi has one other faking scandal in its past—nearly two decades ago, it was caught using actors to portray crime victims in a news video. For shame, TV Asahi. This is definitely not how one should take advantage of the Internet revolution. viaAsiajin

  • http://openweb.asia OpenWeb.Asia – OpenWeb Asia Workgroup

    AsiajinTV Asahi Quiz Show cooks up Fake Blogs for CluesSurprise Automatic Withdrawal Angers Japanese ISP Kai’s Customers “Is that a VAIO in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Cyber Agent Investments Organizes Business Plan Competition

  • http://fr.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/01/28/1631/ Global Voices en Français

    Chaude réaction des blogueurs japonais qui se sont sentis trompés la semaine dernière par la TV Asahi après larévélation(anglais) que dans le spectacle de variétés ウソバスター！(Uso Basutaa !,lit. Chasse aux mensonges) retransmis en première heure le 10 Janvier, les blogs indiqués comme sources avaient été cré&

  • http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2009/01/the-new-social-media-womm-ethics-challenges-3-fake-social-media.html Digital Influence Mapping Project

    There are very few marketers (I am hoping) who would consciously create a blog where the author was not who they say they are unless it was done as a crystal clear parody or character blog. Although there aresurprises every day like TV Asahi out of Japan. On a recent quiz show:  “The anchorperson introduced six blog websites as examples of information collected via the Internet, which were presented as possible clues to the questions in the show.TV-Asahi acknowledged the suspicion that the blog

  • http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/ Néojaponisme

    projects. When images are used, the company fuzzes or otherwise distorts the pictures. (More here.) • Mainstream news programming likes to play up internet-related crimes in order to discredit new media. See the Smiley Kikuchi incident andAsahi’s creation of fake blogs to prove the internet wrong. Also, this indignation towards the net seemed to fuel Mainichi’s reaction to the Wai Wai debate. • Companies refuse to let their employees blog with real names on official corporate blogs, as “head hunters may steal away named

  • http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8225 Asahi TV created fake blogs to cite as source material | Japan Probe

    [...] [via Asiajin] [...]

  • http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/01/24/japan-bloggers-on-tv-asahi-and-uso-basutaa/ Global Voices Online » Japan: Bloggers on TV-Asahi and “Uso Basutaa”

    [...] been the reaction of many Japanese bloggers over the last week who felt cheated by TV Asahi after it turned out that in the variety show ウソバスター！ (Uso Basutaa!, lit. lie buster), broadcast prime [...]

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