"Wil rite for beer"

Wil rite for beer

Dec. 31, 2005. 01:00 AM

(from www.thestar.com)

Moon God Drinking Products Co., a skin care company in China, has offered a bounty of 1,000 yuan ($144) for every typographical or literary error found in a day's editions of four Chinese publications in an attempt to embarrass journalists into better writing. Hao Mingjian, who came up with the idea for the bounty, said that "China's press has lost its polish in the past decade or two," which "reflects a chaotic cultural environment and shows people lack a sense of responsibility." We applaud Hao's initiative, but we have learned over our years at the Star that it is impossible to embarrass journalists. Public humiliation is our stock in trade. If the face cream mogul truly wants to improve the quality of the Chinese papers, he should try a carrot, not a stick. Our colleagues are never so dedicated to their craft as when there's free food on offer. And if Hao were to promise generous beer rations for a job well done, the papers would be error-free within the month. And we're almost certain that our counterparts at the Globe, the Sun and the Post would agree to a similar proposal here.