News just too hot, The Nation ignores Ploy boycott

The press gang’s online “#Support reporter” campaign demands an apology from Ploy for being “rude” and imposes a coverage blackout on all public events in which she’s involved. 

You might have been too busy watching events in Gaza to have noticed a war brewing closer to home. Apparently Ploy behaved impolitely to a reporter interviewing her about a picture of a birthday cake she’d posted on Instagram that had a provocatively erect “middle finger” poking into it. It seems that Ploy offered the cake shot to some hi-so lady with whom she was feuding, adding the caption, “I hope good karma makes you stop talking badly about others and you enjoy the rest of your life.”

People were naturally puzzled at first as to who the target of the baked curse might be, and a reporter from the gossip sheer Siam Dara put the question to her, but unfortunately used the phrase “the source said”. Ploy allegedly hit the roof, yanking the reporter’s face in front of news cameras watching them and demanding that he (or she) clarify this “source” business. “Where is the source? Who is your source?” she freaked.

Rude and unacceptable, says the press. I did nothing wrong, says Ploy. Then you must be punished, says the press. And so, last Friday, Ploy was duly ignored at the opening of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty Bangkok restaurant-shop-spa. The newshounds swarmed actor Jirayu “James Ji” Tangsrisuk instead while Ploy managed to draw the sympathy of a mere two TV channels. 

The ensuing chatter on the social networks boiled down to suggestions that Ploy might enjoy not having to deal with the press but in the long run will need them. Inevitably she was soon on the news regarding the ban itself. How did she feel about being ignored? Siam Dara ran a lead story under the wounded headline “[We] can no longer bear her behaviour insulting young reporter” and warned her against hysteria. Folks at the chatty site Pantip.com found that hysterical. “Obviously the paper has no ethics,” a user called Old Castle commented. 

On Instagram, @chermarn was also being gently soothed. “Screw reporters – half of them just want to sell bullshit,” fan @nikki_nanta averred. From the US, @mariootha added sweetly, “F**k them haters. They deserve nothing but middle finger.” And Ploy’s fan club rolled out its artillery, attacking the gossipy media and beatifying her for being straightforward and not a hypocrite. Meanwhile that cake photo had almost 76,000 “likes” within a week and most of the 1,700 comments were in her favour. 

Even by the rockets’ red glare, we can tell only that Ploy has absolutely no intention of apologising to anyone and there is still no clear winner in this fight. Keeping Ploy out of the mainstream media is relatively easy if the offended press can stay united, but we’ve got all those digital TV channels now too. Ploy could still be showing up all over the place. It looks like it’s just going to come down to which of the combatants needs the other more.