Wednesday, October 23, 2013

SinoList

The Chinese must be jealous of the Obama administration.

In China, the Communist Party has to instruct their journalists about how to write their stories:

Within China the government demands that everyone support Chinese foreign policy. A recent example of this was an order for the 250,000 Chinese journalists to avoid any positive stories about Japan. This is all about the dispute with Japan over the Senkaku Islands. Japan is being stubborn so the ban on positive media coverage of Japan hits Japan in the wallet because Japan is a major economic player in China. In effect, all Chinese journalists have been told that they can say bad things about Japanese products, just nothing good. That can hurt economically. Journalists were also reminded that positive stories about democracy or Western concepts of citizen rights were also forbidden. Chinese journalists are given an examination each year, to ensure they know and understand all the current guidelines, before they get their official journalist status renewed.

Heck, I'm jealous. I can only wish that it took the heavy hand of the state security apparatus to get our reporters to support President Obama.

To be fair, the media is still looking for an angle on this.