Taiwan's Colorful Media

Media in Taiwan are color-coded. The so-called pro-China faction led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is blue, and the pro-Taiwan faction led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is green. Most television companies in Taiwan are blue, two are green; one out of the five major newspapers is green, the rest are blue. Various surveys conducted by various television companies and newspapers have tried to provide a sense of the level of support of each presidential candidate. The problem remains that all of them are too biased. Blue-leaning companies show the KMT candidate leading, although the margins are smaller the green-leaning companies tend to show the DPP candidate leading the race. It is hard to find colorless media in Taiwan. It is no exaggeration to say it is impossible to find any trustworthy political survey.

Surveys of similar kinds conducted in the U.S. do not have big biases like the ones in Taiwan because survey results don't usually have opposite results, big gaps like the ones in Taiwan.

The only news media that is close to being fair is Taiwan's version of PBS, Taiwan Public Television Service (TPTS) 公視. The best program it has is at 7pm, "Let's Talk" (有話好說), a roundtable discussing various social, economic, and cultural problems in contemporary Taiwan. The program invites government officials, scholars, business leaders, and activists depending on the topic of the day. It seeks to discuss existing problems and asks experts to provide solution for a better Taiwan.

Almost everyone in Taiwan is color-coded also. There are independent voters, or people who lean slightly to one side, but most people hold onto their political parties fairly strongly in Taiwan. You can always guess which side they are on by how they evaluate government officials and politicians.