This is not the first time spineless SBTN’s Cuong Nguyen (Vietnamese name: Nguyễn Tự Cường) bent over and submitted to the will of a few. A little more than a year ago, when controversy arose over music of the late antiwar musician Trịnh Công Sơn (see here), Nguyen went on air, insulted the musician, and repudiated any affiliation with the concert – which his station early had promoted heavily.

This SBTN, by the way, is the same SBTN whose reduced-rate ads given to OC supervisor candidate Hoa Van Tran resulted in a complaint to the state Attorney General as a possible illegal campaign contribution. See here.

This most recent controversy involves the legacy of South Vietnam’s first president, who was brought down following a wave of popular protests led by Buddhist monks, something like the one in the photo to the right.

The station had broadcast an interview with an author who claimed the protesting monks were communists. A group of Buddhists clamored for a retraction, and Nguyen went on air to repudiate the interview, slash out at the interviewer, and cancel the program on the spot.

In recent years and especially in the U.S., the late President Ngo Dinh Diem has enjoyed a comeback of sort, where people pretty much forgave his dictatorial ways, his cronyism, and his favoritism of Catholicism. Instead, they remember him as a corruption-free individual (just him, not necessarily his underlings) who was fervently anti-communist.

Riding that wave of newly arisen support for President Diem, an author published a book attacking the Buddhist leaders who had brought down the man’s presidency.

Liên Thành is a former commander of the police force in Huế, the city in central Vietnam that was home to most Buddhist activists. Entitled “Biến Động Miền Trung” (Turmoil in Central Vietnam), the book has been extensively quoted and excerpted electronically, posted on various web sites (such as this one) and sent around the various right-wing listservs.

Essentially a long diatribe, the book’s main claim is that the Buddhist forces that brought down Diem and continued to oppose various policies of the Saigon government were, well, communist.

Always happy to see more accusations of commies, former South Vietnamese military initially came out in droves to support the book. The publisher is the association of former South Vietnamese Rangers. Many came to the book signing all dressed up and wearing a red beret, the symbol of the Rangers, proving how seriously they took the author and his accusations. The photo to the left is taken from a Viet Bao story, here.

On a special Tet broadcast on the same SBTN, Lien Thanh was invited to speak about the atrocities committed by communists during the Tet Offensive in Hue. After all, he’s now the expert on communists in the city. (Click on photo below to go to video on Blogspot.)

That was when Lien Thanh was the darling of conspiracy theorists who love the fact that he’d unearthed a whole organization of commies.

A few months into the lovefest, however, people began having second thought. The same (supposedly commie) Buddhist forces that once opposed President Diem are now opposing the communist government’s attempts to take over Buddhist temples and teachings in the country.

If those same Buddhists were communists then, what does it make them and their disciples now? All of a sudden, Lien Thanh’s red-baiting doesn’t seem as attractive as it used to be.

Into this quandary stepped Du Tử Lê. One of the most creative and frequently cited poets of the late 20th century, Du Tử Lê has had many of his poems set to music to become very popular songs (Khúc Thụy Du – Anh Bằng, Khi Cuộc Tình Đã Chết – Phạm Đình Chương, etc.)

Du Tử Lê has his own show on SBTN, so he invited Lien Thanh to participate. By then, however, he’s no longer the anti-communist knight in shining armor. He has become (gasp!) a controversial figure.

So Du Tử Lê had his interviews with Lien Thanh and broadcast them in several installations. All hell broke loose. The two camps, pro-Lien Thanh and anti-Lien Thanh, began loudly proclaiming the other one communist.

On Halloween Day, SBTN rolled over and played dead. Half of its midday news broadcast consists of a meeting between a group of Buddhists and its CEO Cuong Nguyen.

Interestingly, SBTN devoted much of its coverage to the delegation heaping abuse, not on Lien Thanh, but on the interviewer Du Tử Lê.

The clip cuts away just as one member of the delegation started talking about Lien Thanh. Even SBTN’s reporter Thanh Toan, who has been spending most of last year enjoying the good life in communist Vietnam, in his voice-over also craps on Du Tử Lê.

Probably afraid that a group of pro-Diem people would show up next, SBTN steered clear of any criticism of Lien Thanh’s claims.

And then, bending backward, the CEO admitted that his approach to any controversy is actually to go along with whatever the people sitting in front of him say – whom he calls “the community.” He agreed with the group, threw the old poet under the bus, and announced that he would cancel the show even if nobody has asked for it.