Dear The Real Singapore,
I refer to the article: "SOCIAL NEWS SITE MOTHERSHIP.SG ASKED TO REGISTER BY MDA"
Ever thought that something was fishy about the way Mothership was run? You're not alone.
This is because The Mothership Team is comprised and funded by civil servants and PAP members.
This comment in the straits times MDA article sums it up. (http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/mda-asks-website-mothershipsg-register-licence-20140403)
As the comment above, this is not new news to some of us civil servants who are aware of Mothership's true political agenda, but many Singaporeans are still unaware of this. The PAP is now attempting to pull of this wayang MDA exercise, taking Singaporeans for fools. Mothership's ultimate goal is to become a casual yet Government-friendly portal, an alternative to ‘alternative media’ which the young generation can relate to. This MDA silencing act is an attempt to show that they are "fair" in enforcing this act but their real target remains the real rogue sites out there. Mothership runs pro-PAP content and is led by PAP members.
A Straits Times Report in February 2014 was planted to create more awareness for the site:
"A social news website that wants to get more young people talking and learning about Singapore has relaunched to cope with high traffic. Mothership.sg is styled in the mould of popular American site Buzzfeed. It has four full-time staff, former foreign minister George Yeo as a contributor and is backed by a social enterprise chaired by civil service veteran Philip Yeo."
Even the Former Mainstream Media Columnist turned blogger that keep switching his words from being a PAP supporter to a Opposition supporter Mr Brown also made this comment about Mothership.
Mr Brown's Twitter - https://twitter.com/mrbrown/status/430199558195265536
Mothership is also a nickname for PAP. This is what Mr Brown is referring to in this tweet.
A look at some members of the Mothership Team
Martino Tan - Ex PMO civil servant who set up PM Lee’s Facebook page.
Jonathan Lim (MICA) - Ministry of Communications and Information Staff.
Jonathan Lim (MICA) - Ministry of Communications and Information Staff.
Phillip Yeo - Has been heading SPRING Singapore that helps Singapore enterprises grow since 2007.
George Yeo - Served in cabinet from 1991 to 2011. Might be looking for a way back into politics since he was embarrassingly ousted out at the 2011 GE after losing to the Worker's Party in the Aljunied GRC.
Lien We King - An ardent supporter of George Yeo.
Belmont Lay - The Oddball, but he was once reported as being unable to secure an internship at The Straits Times (ST). He is proof that a person's integrity can change completely when you throw money infront of him. Source: http://sheereng.wordpress.com/final-feature/the-new-kid-on-the-block/
PAP's Changing Strategy
The PAP has quietly moved into digital media after realising that print media is no longer influential to the young. Remember Tan Pei Ling? The only reason they hired such an underserving MP was because they believed she could resonate with young voters. It was a bad judgement call that backfired big time and they wasted much of our Tax Payers money on her. They are now trying to do the same thing on the Digital Media front. Here is another source that show's the government's allocation of resources. Signs also point to them using Temesak Holdings as a channel to recruit quality staff to lead their "digital engagement strategy and owned media assets" to promote government propaganda.
They have been allocating resources to be used to influence the young generation of Singaporeans and one of these channels is through Mothership.SG. Their target is young Singaporean audiences but they cover other news to disguise their true intention and to get traffic. In 2016, as Mothership builds up a large audience, they will ramp up their news and become heavily political, and spin news in a way to support the PAP and influence the young.
An example of their Pro-PAP content - There is so much propaganda - Doesn't it look like how strikingly similar to how LHL's page is managed?
- 6 Reasons why PM Lee Hsien Loong has more street cred in London than in Orchard Road http://mothership.sg/2014/03/6-reasons-why-pm-lee-hsien-loong-has-more-street-cred-in-london-than-in-orchard-road/
- 8 ways to flame-proof your Prime Minister http://mothership.sg/2013/08/8-ways-flame-proof-prime-minister/
- 90 reasons why you secretly fancy Lee Kuan Yew http://mothership.sg/2013/09/90-reasons-fancy-lee-kuan-yew/
- 18 questions S’poreans are not too shy to ask PM Lee Hsien Loong http://mothership.sg/2013/09/questions-sporeans-not-shy-ask-pm-lee/
- Why the third Population White Paper protest was so meh http://mothership.sg/2013/10/gilbert-goh-hong-lim-protest/
- 5 Dos and Don’ts at the biennial PAP party convention http://mothership.sg/2013/12/dos-donts-biennial-pap-party-convention/
- PM Lee vowed to hunt down Anonymous on Nov. 6, S’pore had a suspect in custody on Nov. 4 http://mothership.sg/2013/11/pm-lee-vowed-hunt-anonymous-nov-6-spore-suspect-custody-nov-4/
- An Extraordinary Life: Lee Kuan Yew http://mothership.sg/2013/09/extraordinary-life-lee-kuan-yew/
Why enforce the MDA licensing on Mothership?
MothershipSG is going to comply with the MDA registration, there is no question about that. This was just a wayang exercise to gain it support and make it look like a "legit" alternative news site.
They were hoping that this MDA news would go viral like how people rallied together and supported Breakfast Network. They first made use of Straits Times in 2014 to post "breaking news" about their Re-Luanch - which is hardly news worthy - they are just a website. Now, they have attempted to engineer the streisand effect, to have everyone talking about Mothership. As of now, this MDA censorship news has been covered by all the MSM, Yahoo and the big news sites in Singapore, like one carefully executed PR campaign. Fortunately, it did not work out and support from the masses so far has been minimal and met with a muted response. Perhaps Singaporeans do suspect foul play at work.
What can you do?
I used to enjoy reading and sharing Mothership Articles until I found out about their true agenda, then I just felt deceived. Right now Mothership is covering popular topics they have no knowledge of, for the sole purpose of getting views. And they have been getting slammed by readers for some of their lazy writing.
This includes their latest articles on Cafes and Food because they realised its popular with Singaporeans. Their aim is to obtain as much traffic as possible and nothing else.
They do not care about the quality of information provided.
I was very angry when I first found out about this because I was helping to share and read Mothership articles. I realised I was actually just being used as a pawn by the government to help spread traffic for their site, so they can promote their own agenda.
The only thing Singaporeans can do now is to spread this message so more of us are aware of it, and to start boycotting MothershipSG. Do not like or share their articles. Do not spread word about their MDA licensing. Starve them off the views they are after and they will naturally cease to exist.
Further reading:
Richard Wan
TRS Contributor
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