Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 325 In the Center of the Public Opinion Storm
The San Francisco Observer's hostility to Fang's newspaper industry is not only due to competition among peers, but also the background of its owner, the Hearst Corporation.

You know, the founder of this media giant is the American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst—William Randolph Hearst.The wave of yellow journalism he set off in the early 20th century had a profound impact on the later news media.

Therefore, this controversial figure is known as the "Hitler" and "King of Yellow News" in the press.

The classic movie "Citizen Kane" in the history of Hollywood movies was adapted from his life.

While William Hearst achieved unprecedented success in the newspaper industry, he also actively sought political capital, but ended in failure. However, the "yellow peril" he once advocated, the "Yellow Peril", has been used as a poison to slander the newspaper from time to time. With Chinese immigrants.

William Hearst's success in the media career began with the "San Francisco Observer". Naturally, some ideological prejudices are always looming.

According to the "Observer", the vigorous development of Fang's newspaper in the past two years is due to Tang Huan's various supports.

With Tang Huan's growing influence in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has become the core of the local Chinese community.

For example, those industry associations such as Chinese food and traditional Chinese medicine were originally just some spontaneous and scattered organizations, but after they held various honorary titles, they began to unite and grow stronger, and tried to protect themselves by actively participating in political activities to make their voices heard Interests.

Seeing a group of people who have always been weak begin to change their luck, the "Observer" felt uncomfortable all over like scratching its heart.

In particular, the recent Fangyuan Computer Standards Alliance meeting attracted nearly a hundred business leaders. The airport in San Francisco specially opened a special channel for this purpose, and media colleagues and official organizations also pursued it without hesitation.

If you want to attack Fang's newspaper, you can't avoid Tang Huan, and this is exactly what the "Observer" is eager to do.

Before this, "The Observer" had hacked Tang Huan several times, but the opponent's halo was too dazzling at that time, and their tricks were directly immune to him.

But now, the situation is different. The Observer thinks it has found an excellent breakthrough.

Recently, Shennong Foundation judged that it did not comply with the regulations when dealing with a student funding quota, and gave the opportunity to another Chinese, but this student was dissatisfied and began to appeal.

More importantly, the current general environment is conducive to hype this news.

Due to the backlash triggered by Reagan's various economic policies, the employment situation of young people is becoming less and less optimistic. The United States, an immigrant country, has always been like this. When the economic environment is good, ethnic conflicts are covered up by singing and dancing. intensifies or even explodes.

As a yellow journalism expert who is well versed in sensational reports, the Observer suddenly declared war on Tang Huan without warning.

The first poisonous arrow they shot was, of course, aimed at the Shennong Foundation, which changed the target of education funding. They believed that this organization established with windfall income had actually become a tool for Tang Huangu to gain fame, and there were even other unspeakable things hidden in its operation. The purpose of accusing others, such as supporting Chinese forces, tax evasion and money laundering, etc.

Next, the "Observer" began to attack Tang Huan personally, questioning his honesty record, such as the authenticity of his personal information when he first entered the United States that year.

This topic is a cliché. The "Observer" went to members of the Tang family to dig inside information, but compared to the other party's evasive words before, I occasionally got something. This time, the other party was completely unified, and I had nothing Got it.

But it doesn’t matter. The Observer directly quoted the material from the old report.

In addition, they accidentally discovered that Tang Huan's public information had an extra master's title, and after inquiring about it, they roughly understood what happened.

Tang Huan actually graduated according to the normal time, just kidding, under such conditions, how can it be so easy for a person to balance work and study at the same time.

However, the instructor is a Chinese, so it can be completely explained.

In this way, there was another attack on Tang Huan's integrity - falsification of academic qualifications.

Once this carefully crafted report by the "Observer" was published, it immediately caused an uproar in the San Francisco Bay Area and even California, and its dying sales skyrocketed.

Seeing the enthusiastic response from the market, the "Observer" quickly followed up and continued to discover Tang Huan's black news.

Because the "Observer" has pointed out without any scruples that Fang's newspaper was bought by Tang Huan and has nothing to do except flatter the master, so Fang's newspaper fought back, and the drama of war of words began to be staged.

Tang Huan, who has always attached great importance to intelligence collection, of course knew of the public opinion attack launched by the "Observer" immediately, but he didn't pay much attention to it at first.

Here in the United States, freedom of speech is almost an instinctive cognition deeply rooted in people's bones, and the coexistence of multiple opinions is normal.Just like William Hearst, the owner of the "Observer", whether he was alive or dead, he had mixed reputations, and Tang Huan certainly didn't think he could be an exception.

Besides, this kind of talk, apart from gaining attention and selling a few more newspapers, can it affect him without pain or itching.

What's more, the "Observer" mainly covers the San Francisco Bay Area, and this area has long been Tang Huan's sphere of influence.

However, although Tang Huan, the person involved, could take it lightly, it didn't mean that other people could do the same, and it was unknown who smashed the glass in the "Observer" office at night.

For this small revenge, the "Observer" not only did not get into a rage, but was ecstatic. This is simply big news delivered to the door, so timely.

For the Hearst Group, San Francisco has special significance. It was here that William Hearst laid a solid foundation for success and then established a media empire across the United States. It is not an exaggeration to say that San Francisco is the land of prosperity.

Therefore, the "Observer" received the full support of the Hearst Group, and its report attacking Tang Huan was reprinted by other newspapers under the group.

People in important cities such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, etc. began to talk enthusiastically about Tang Huan, an upstart who was in the limelight.

Tang Huan, who found that the situation spread so fast and widely, and was about to leave for the mainland, felt vaguely wrong. If he left San Francisco now, wouldn't it be true, and the other party would have more room to talk about it.

What's more important is that the "Observer"'s attacks are beginning to be lethal. Tang Huan is no longer sure to accurately assess the extent to which his public image will be damaged after the incident expands to the United States.

Tang Huan, who had postponed his schedule, was still thinking about how to deal with it when his public relations consultant, Silicon Valley marketing guru Regis McKenna couldn't sit still.

As a shareholder of Zheru, Regis McKenna has too many reasons to provide public relations services for Tang Huan.

Moreover, Tang Huan was his most famous and honored customer, which had a very special meaning. When his company was negotiating business, it would often get twice the result with half the effort.

After seeing Tang Huan, Regis McKenna noticed that the other party's expression was still calm, and immediately asked worriedly, "Tang, have you noticed the reports about you in many newspapers recently?"

"Of course." Tang Huan nodded calmly, "However, everything I do can stand the test. What can those clamors do to me!"

"Of course I believe this." Regis McKenna sighed, "However, based on the intuition cultivated by my long-term working experience, I smell the smell of conspiracy."

"Conspiracy or not, I don't care for the time being, but I can feel the deep malice." Tang Huan frowned, "I think that if I am kind to others, I will not offend anyone. Perhaps, as my wealth and status increase, I will be touched by others." It touched the sensitive nerves of some racists. After all, my yellow skin and black eyes represent a minority, which has long been the target of discrimination and suppression."

"I also have a similar inference." Regis McKenna pondered for a moment, "In any case, racial equality is absolutely politically correct, and we can start to fight back from this point, lest this public opinion turmoil will affect business. interests, especially since EA is now a publicly traded company."

"There is no need to worry too much about this. EA's growth rate this year is still amazing." Tang Huan waved his hand, "However, I can't keep silent. If a tiger doesn't show its power, it will be regarded as a sick cat."

Seeing Tang Huan follow the good advice, Regis McKenna calmed down and began to give his own advice.

Before they could finalize the plan, the development of the situation continued to take a big step in the direction of deterioration.

The next day, the "Washington Post" suddenly joined the battle group. It published an article titled "The World of Video Game Consoles", which told the story of a middle school student who was addicted to video games, delayed his studies and missed important opportunities in life. Experience, and even pointed out that the victim was playing EA's Xiaobawang game console, which immediately attracted extremely wide-ranging heated discussions.

In fact, in addition to all kinds of flattery and flattery of the current video game industry, the media also has criticisms of its side effects. Tang Huan even specifically asked EA to add "moderate games to benefit the brain" on all packages. , Indulging in games will hurt your body" kind warning.

But these objections are often only superficial, and quickly fade away, causing no waves.

But this time, the "Washington Post" newspaper has formed a certain climate.

One reason is that by exposing the Watergate scandal, the Washington Post built considerable credibility.

The second reason is that Janet Cooke, the reporter of this report, is this year's Pulitzer Prize winner, which can be described as a halo bonus.

The Pulitzer Prize was established in 1917 according to the last wish of Joseph Pulitzer, an American newspaper magnate.

There is a historical view in journalism and history that the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 would never have been fought without the fanfare of yellow journalism.

Regardless of whether it is true or not, the pornographic news, which relies on exaggerating scandals, crimes, and sex to attract readers' attention and increase market sales, began to reach its climax in 1898, and the two sides fighting at that time were the famous newspaper tycoon William Hess Te and Joseph Pulitzer.

It wasn't until 1901 that Joseph Pulitzer, tired of this competition, canceled the most criticized yellow section of the "New York World", and the trend of yellow journalism gradually declined.

Joseph Pulitzer once launched a fundraising campaign to help the Statue of Liberty during his lifetime, and made great contributions to its smooth completion; later, through his will, he donated to establish the Columbia University School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prize, so his The positive reputation is not comparable to that of William Hurst.

Naturally, the Pulitzer Prize is highly regarded by the industry and has now grown into one of the highest honors in American journalism.

Janet Cook, who just won this year's Pulitzer Prize, is herself the darling of the media.

Her award-winning work was a feature "Jimmys World" published on September 1980, 9--"Jimmy's World", about an 28-year-old black child named Jimmy, who killed himself because of his mother's boyfriend taking drugs. The story of taking drugs.

The criticism of the video game industry launched by her in a similar reporting style was quite effective. One of the manifestations was that the stock price of EA, which was named, suddenly fell slightly.

Regis McKenna, who did not expect Cheng Yaojin to come out halfway, started to sweat in the face of the "Washington Post" that suddenly jumped out.

"Interesting, it seems that I have encountered the legendary ceiling." Tang Huan laughed heartlessly.

"With the addition of the "Washington Post" variable, our response plan must be adjusted accordingly." Regis McKenna sighed depressingly.

"It's okay to wait, maybe there will be a new show tomorrow, otherwise the ceiling is not thick enough and hard enough to really teach me, a daredevil who quickly entered the upper class circle." Tang Huan laughed at himself while staring at the newspaper Name on Janet Cook.

Sure enough, as Tang Huan expected, the Washington Post's report on the first day can be regarded as an emotional card, and it carried out a rational report from a professional perspective on the second day.

The Washington Post comprehensively analyzed EA's debt situation and believed that Tang Huan had used it as a cash machine, making uncontrolled acquisitions everywhere, and even some businesses were completely unrelated, resulting in extreme problems in the company's operations. Big risk.

Tang Huan observed patiently and found that EA's stock price continued to fall.

The "Washington Post" didn't stop there, and Tang Huan spit out the tea in his mouth when he saw the content of the report.

(End of this chapter)