HONG KONG — The boundary between sophisticated television fiction and disconcerting reality blurred this week as a popular drama about cutthroat media politics featured a plotline on deepfake technology, coinciding with a mainland Chinese actress publicly accusing scammers of cloning her identity for commercial gain.
The controversy surrounds the hit TVB series News Queen 2, which centers on power struggles within a major newsroom. The show’s narrative has been praised for tackling contemporary issues, including a subplot where a character attempts to weaponize artificial intelligence to generate a lifelike “AI anchor” to compete with the central protagonist, raising prescient questions about authenticity and media manipulation.
Star Confronts Her Digital Double
The fictional use of AI mirrors a real-life deepfake scandal involving actress Wen Zhengrong, known for her role in the series Kung Fu Soccer. Ms. Wen recently took to social media to allege that unauthorized users employed sophisticated deepfake technology to perfectly replicate her voice and likeness. This AI clone was then used to host deceptive livestream e-commerce sessions, fooling numerous followers with its exceptional realism.
The situation escalated when Ms. Wen encountered the scam in real-time. She reportedly entered the fake live stream and dramatically challenged the digital impostor, demanding, “If you are Wen Zhengrong, who am I?” Her account was immediately blocked by the scammers. Forced to take extraordinary measures, the actress recorded a video affirmation stating, “I am the real one!” to protect her fans and reputation from the convincing digital fraud.
Newsroom Intrigue: Fact or Fiction?
The show’s depiction of intense internal politics has prompted former news professionals to share candid insights into the demanding and sometimes bizarre reality of their industry.
Former journalist Lee Chan-wing recounted his astonishment upon watching the drama, confirming that office politics in 1990s newsrooms could be incredibly aggressive. Lee startlingly revealed details about a high-ranking executive who employed extreme surveillance methods to gather intelligence on subordinates.
“This supervisor would arrive hours early to rummage through discarded waste paper, searching for fragments of information,” Lee noted. The executive’s espionage extended to hiding in bathrooms to eavesdrop on conversations near a common library and frequenting staff bars late at night to glean private chat, determined to maintain absolute knowledge of the organization.
Lee also highlighted a stark contrast between TV drama glamor and reality. He noted that unlike the lead character’s opulent on-screen lifestyle, many journalists during that era earned meager salaries and were forced to take second jobs just to make ends meet, demonstrating the profession’s true economic challenges.
Professional Standards and Workplace Realities
The series also drew scrutiny from former news anchors regarding professional standards. Former TVB anchor Gigi Sun questioned a scene where a character delivers a weather report in an overtly cutesy manner, even using an umbrella indoors. Sun emphasized that a weather segment is fundamentally news information, prioritizing accuracy and professionalism over theatricality.
Meanwhile, an editor who recently resigned from the TVB news department, posting under the alias “Island Spicy Girl Little Dyla,” revealed that while the intense factionalism portrayed in the show may be exaggerated, another character—the “Man-sister”—has a real-life counterpart: Huang Shuming, the current Controller for News and Information.
However, the former employee clarified that her primary reasons for leaving were not political infighting but the more mundane, if still grueling, issues of low pay and unstable working hours. She summarized the profession succinctly: “It was hard work, but worthwhile.” The ongoing discourse generated by the series underscores the media industry’s constant battle between professional ethics, financial strain, and the swift adoption of transformative technology, which now includes the threat of sophisticated AI impersonation.
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