Photo/Illutration White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefs reporters in Washington on Feb. 12. (AP Photo)

The “Shiji,” an ancient Chinese historical text, contains the following episode.

Zhao Gao, a high-ranking official of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), gifted the emperor with a deer, insisting it was a horse. Laughing, the amused emperor asked his entourage what they thought.

Some, afraid of Zhao Gao’s power, remained silent. Others played up to him. But there was one man who told the truth as he saw it: “It’s a deer.” He was later put to death by Zhao Gao.

In Japan, there is a theory that this is how the Japanese word “baka” (fool), written with the kanji characters for “horse” and “deer,” originated.

I can only marvel at the perfect parallel between the Qin incident in ancient China and what took place earlier this week in Washington, D.C.

An Associated Press reporter was barred from attending an event in the Oval Office on Feb. 12.

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, in disregard of more than four centuries of it being known otherwise.

The White House demanded that the AP comply with this change in its influential Stylebook, but the news agency refused. Hence the shutting out of its reporter from the Oval Office.

Referring to the incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “If we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.”

This is utterly beyond belief. The leader of a nation arbitrarily changes the name of something and punishes those who refuse to go along with it. And this has happened in the 21st century United States, of all places.

“The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news,” the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association said in a statement.

As a member of the media, I could not agree more.

The news from across the Pacific over the past month has been a real downer.

According to the “Shiji,” there eventually was nobody left who would point out Zhao Gao’s mistakes.

I wonder what’s in store for us.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 15

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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