Toughest job in the world?

First there’s the scorn being heaped on “thailand’s Got Talent” for opening its new season with a contestant who needed private care rather than public broadcast. Rights advocates and family networks have complained to the National Broadcasting Commission about what they see as an inappropriate assault on dignity. 

The PR staff could only repeat the boss’ insistence that Sitthata Emerald applied to appear like anyone else, that it wasn’t their fault he’s a terrible singer, and that the judges’ reactions were genuine, not staged. They previewed the tape before it was aired and found nothing offensive.

Workpoint’s “explanation” isn’t good enough for the broadcasting watchdog and it plans to investigate further whether viewers are right in deeming the segment unethical. “Because the show airs on Sunday afternoons, it should have appropriate content,” commissioner Supinya Klangnarong said.

Meanwhile the company is also in hot water because one its comedy regulars – Pongsak “Teng Terdtheong” Pongsuwan of the so-called Sam-cha Gang on TV’s “Ching Roi, Ching Larn” – performed onstage at a birthday party for red-shirt leader and Pheu Thai MP Nattawut Saikua. Not so bad, except that at the end he declared, “I want to see Thaksin return.”

There are a few people who would prefer that the toppled PM-in-hiding did not return, and they duly announced that they would stop watching the comedy show. Over to the PR department, then: Teng was hired for the Pheu Thai gig directly, not through Workpoint. 

Maybe this one’s no big deal. As someone posted on Pantip.com, “I hate Thaksin but I want him to come home too.” Possibly for a lynching – we’re not sure – but a lot of people brushed off Teng’s political comment as simply his own opinion expressed at a moonlighting job. “If he’s really fond of Thaksin, then good luck to him,” someone else said online. “The ‘slaves’ of Thaksin have had good lives so far.”