Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/622093
tobaccoasia 63 men in China will eventually be killed by tobacco." Reading this sentence, one can't help but think that a large number of young men will die shortly after smoking. Such is just one characteristic of this nar- rative: it smartly conceals the length of the period from the time of smoking to the time of death. In reality, it is not the case that young men will die shortly after smoking. Instead, in the next few decades, some of the young men will die of dis- eases related to cigarette smoking. Although the statement of the aforesaid sentence makes it dif- ficult for one to determine that its way of narration is absolutely wrong, the key information omitted therein makes it possible for one to fall into this trap. If it were true that cigarette smoking could quickly kill one-third of all young men in China, the government would have shut down all cigarette factories a long time ago. Such news reports are openly misleading their readers with their biased coverage. In some of their reporting, the media often take a predetermined position and released biased coverage. A news website released an article titled Latest Report of the World Health Organization: Raising Tobacco Tax Can Save Lives. Apart from the term "saving lives", the article also uses such expres- sions as "tobacco causes deaths" and "lethal prod- ucts", which must be taken very seriously in news coverage. Any abuse of such strong terminology may easily cause distortion of facts. Take the title of the aforesaid article for ex- ample. It indicates that raising tobacco tax can save lives, not only implying that tobacco manu- facturers are killing smokers like murderers, but also underestimating the intelligence of smokers by viewing them as money-making entities without self-awareness who are completely manipulated by others. However, tobacco is merely a commodity – a commodity whose hazards are vigorously and publicly exaggerated and yet, people are still willing to buy it. Buyers of tobacco products do not need other people to "rescue" them. The relationship between the seller and the buyer of tobacco prod- ucts is that of willingness and mutual consent. It does not mean that one side is forcing the other into something they don't want to do. The afore- said highly biased article not only fails to mention the real fact, but is also only dishonest and runs counter to the tenets of unbiased reporting. Some news reports on hazards of tobacco use seemingly serious but actually insignificant re- search conclusions, or even rumors, to exaggerate