I'm a news junkie. I confess. Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, liberal, conservative, or mainstream, I watch them all. The other night I discovered CCTV (China Central Television), an official Chinese TV station headquartered in Beijing, China. (It's available on Dish Network and possibly other outlets.)
Was prepared to watch some biased news reporting, but I was surprised at how good it seemed to be. Perhaps for their Western audiences they don't hide what's going on in the Middle East or try to give the official Chinese Communist Party line. The quality of the programming is excellent. I saw video of Libya, Syria, and other areas in the Middle East that I haven't seen on other channels.
Watching this positive view of China, I had to force myself to bear in mind that the Chinese government clamps down brutally to any real or perceived threat to its political power. Consider its brutal repression of student protests in Tiananmen Square, and the destruction of its symbol, the Goddess of Liberty (also named the Goddess of Democracy). Consider its current repression of the "Jasmine" movement; its jailing of journalists and bloggers; its banning the word "Egypt" during the Egyptian protests; and its delay or suppression of undesirable financial news.
So why is CCTV and its related website so good, placing China in such a favorable light to Western audiences? Back during the days of the Soviet Union there was a magazine called "Soviet Life" which portrayed a seeming paradise of happy, prosperous people. If one based ones opinion only on that publication, one would have to agree that the Soviet Union was truly a workers' paradise. Yet, we know the truth.
Despite the highly positive portrayal of China delivered on CCTV, one must remember that it is crafted specifically to portray only a positive view of China, leaving out the reality of tight government control of the media, free speech, and any questioning of its monopoly on political power.
Here's the link: http://english.cntv.cn/01/index.shtml
Speaker and writer Ken West is author of Get What You Want!, available worldwide on Amazon.com and other online booksellers. In the U.S. at http://bit.ly/alF9vp.
Was prepared to watch some biased news reporting, but I was surprised at how good it seemed to be. Perhaps for their Western audiences they don't hide what's going on in the Middle East or try to give the official Chinese Communist Party line. The quality of the programming is excellent. I saw video of Libya, Syria, and other areas in the Middle East that I haven't seen on other channels.
Watching this positive view of China, I had to force myself to bear in mind that the Chinese government clamps down brutally to any real or perceived threat to its political power. Consider its brutal repression of student protests in Tiananmen Square, and the destruction of its symbol, the Goddess of Liberty (also named the Goddess of Democracy). Consider its current repression of the "Jasmine" movement; its jailing of journalists and bloggers; its banning the word "Egypt" during the Egyptian protests; and its delay or suppression of undesirable financial news.
So why is CCTV and its related website so good, placing China in such a favorable light to Western audiences? Back during the days of the Soviet Union there was a magazine called "Soviet Life" which portrayed a seeming paradise of happy, prosperous people. If one based ones opinion only on that publication, one would have to agree that the Soviet Union was truly a workers' paradise. Yet, we know the truth.
Despite the highly positive portrayal of China delivered on CCTV, one must remember that it is crafted specifically to portray only a positive view of China, leaving out the reality of tight government control of the media, free speech, and any questioning of its monopoly on political power.
Here's the link: http://english.cntv.cn/01/index.shtml
Speaker and writer Ken West is author of Get What You Want!, available worldwide on Amazon.com and other online booksellers. In the U.S. at http://bit.ly/alF9vp.
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