International Law

Sexing Up the Bad News

By Stan

I’m glad someone said it. Lots of talking going on in China about the foreign press and an anti-China bias. Not sure about that, but I do think there is an obvious bias towards sensationalism.

If you follow that link, you will read about and see examples of media distortion of the Tibet story. There’s been a lot of that going on, and apparently the games are on both sides.

Reminds me of 1999. On a Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in my office catching up on work. This was back in my old job at the International Club, which is just down the street from the U.S. Embassy. While I was sitting there, news came in that the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade had been bombed by the U.S., and immediately a convoy of buses was sent down from Haidian, packed with student protestors, to voice their outrage in front of the Embassy.

They parked in the International Club lot. I thought they were tour buses. The entire afternoon, I sat there oblivious to what was going on down the street. Didn’t see anyone running around outside, didn’t hear anyone shouting or anything.

I went home and turned on CNN. Lots of tight shots of the main gate of the U.S. Embassy. With that perspective, it looked as though a huge mob had taken over part of the city and was poised to attack. It was a scary image. Meanwhile, a block away, everything was normal.

Small example of how this all works. CNN has to sell ads, has to attract viewers, and it’s motivated to make things look as exciting as possible. Did those images worsen the tense bilateral situation between the two countries at the time? Definitely - that was the main source of video footage that was viewed by expats and folks overseas.

I’m not saying that the foreign press is deliberately China bashing, but the way that it gravitates towards sensationalism is hard to deny. The Wall Street Journal took on the subject as well today.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).