Summary of the Core Content
This is a tragic incident involving a worker who died due to a media misreporting: Zheng, a 55-year-old labor dispatch worker, died from heatstroke while performing ground maintenance at Wanda in Linyi at night. The workplace had the air conditioning and doors and windows turned off, which contributed to his death. The authorities have recognized it as a work-related accident. However, some media outlets, in pursuit of sensational headlines, changed the headline from “Workplace air conditioning was turned off” to “A man turned off the air conditioning,” subtly shifting the blame onto the deceased, misleading public opinion. The author condemns this irresponsible behavior and exposes the difficult living conditions of low-income workers, calling on the media to return to their supervisory duties and ethical responsibilities.
I. The Truth of the Incident: The Fatal “High-Temperature Prison” for Labor Dispatch Workers
Zheng’s death was not a “personal mistake” but the result of being pushed to the brink:
- Vulnerable Status: As a labor dispatch worker, his rights and protections were inherently weaker compared to those of Wanda’s regular employees.
- Poor Working Conditions: During nighttime operations, the mall turned off the air conditioning and doors and windows (a common practice in the industry), creating a hot and enclosed space that directly led to heatstroke (the most severe form of heat illness, with core body temperatures exceeding 40°C being fatal).
- Exhaustion: He had not taken a break for four months and worked over 240 hours per month (the normal monthly workload is around 176 hours), leaving his body severely overworked.
- Lack of Help: The mall was empty in the early morning, so even if he felt dizzy or weak, no one would help him. Asking for a leave meant losing his job—these facts were confirmed by the official investigation, and the work-related accident determination also pointed out that the responsibility lay with the working conditions.
II. The Traps in Headlines: The Art of Shifting Blame onto the Deceased
Some media headlines were deliberately misleading:
The original fact was that “the workplace air conditioning was turned off” (with the mall/employer as the subject), but the media changed it to “A man turned off the air conditioning” (making Zheng the subject). This subtle change completely altered the direction of public opinion:
- The question should have been “Why did the mall turn off the air conditioning? Did they provide any cooling measures for the workers?”
- Now, the focus is on “Was this man foolish to turn off the air conditioning and bring about his own death?”
- Even more egregious, Zheng, as a night shift worker, had no authority to turn on or off the mall’s air conditioning (which was centrally controlled by management). The media ignored basic common sense in pursuit of higher click rates.
III. The “Self-Exertion” of Low-Income Workers: Not Foolishness, but Survival Struggles
Why didn’t Zheng turn on the air conditioning? It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; it was that he couldn’t:
- Fear of Losing His Job: Labor dispatch workers’ positions are unstable, and employers can dismiss them for “wasting electricity.”
- **The Cost of Being “Responsible”: Having struggled in the labor market for a long time, they have learned to be self-restrained—afraid to bother others or make requests, fearing being labeled as “unreasonable.”
- Lack of Support: After four months of continuous overtime, his body was already showing signs of fatigue (dizziness, weakness), but asking for a leave would mean giving up his income and possibly losing his job, so he had no choice but to endure.
This form of “self-exertion” is a result of survival pressures, not inherent foolishness.
IV. What the Media Should Do: Supervise Violations, Not Create Sensational Stories
According to the “Heatstroke Prevention and Cooling Measures Management Regulations,” employers must ensure that workplaces meet health standards. Wanda clearly violated these regulations:
- They did not turn on air conditioning or cooling equipment during hot weather.
- There was no ventilation in the enclosed space.
- No one checked on the night shift workers’ conditions.
- There was no emergency response plan in place.
The media should have questioned: Who is responsible—Wanda’s property management or the labor dispatch company? Has anyone been held accountable? Are there similar issues at other malls? However, some media ignored these key points and focused solely on the headline, abandoning their supervisory role and betraying their ethical responsibilities.
V. Media Ethics: Don’t Lose Your Integrity for KPIs
Some media outlets, in pursuit of higher KPIs (such as the number of articles published or click rates), disregard basic facts:
- They simply copied and pasted official information, even changing the subject.
- They wrote articles like “A man turned off the air conditioning and died” without conducting any on-site investigations.
- They reduced a tragedy that could provoke social reflection to a mere gossip about a “personal mistake.”
The author is angry because the media’s role is to speak up for the weak and supervise power. If they cannot even do this and instead help cover up the truth, then their existence loses meaning—they are unfair to the deceased and only increase public disappointment in the media.
In conclusion, the author urges that even if a thorough investigation is not possible, at least the facts should not be distorted, so that the deceased’s reputation is not further damaged after death.
The core message of this analysis is that the root cause of the tragedy is the neglect of workers’ rights, and the media’s misreporting only adds to their suffering. What we need to focus on is “how to prevent low-income workers from dying due to poor working conditions,” rather than whether the deceased turned off the air conditioning or not.