I couldn't help but be tickled by this story of (the) one tasting (the) one's own medicine in the Washington Post today. A handful of excerpts that caught my increasingly jaundiced eye:
The 7 p.m. news broadcast of CCTV is the most influential in China, reflecting the official government line and serving as the main source of television news for most people outside the major cities. But Obama's arrival in Shanghai was not even the lead story -- it was seventh in a line of stories that began with one on President Hu Jintao returning from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore.
[You mean the government plays an active role in limiting access to stories that are less than complimentary to it?]
and
When CCTV did mention Obama's visit, well into the broadcast, it was in a story of less than a minute that just noted his airport arrival and his meeting with the mayor of Shanghai. There was not a word about the forum with students, which the White House had billed as the marquee event of Obama's first trip to China.
[wait a minute, do the Chinese officials not understand what 'marquee event' means and who deemed it such?]
and
"I really agree with Obama's slogan, 'change' " said Jiang Yimeng, 19-year-old high school graduate. "I think the U.S. is more open than China."
[Apparently, it is no longer sufficiently clear a distinction that Jiang felt comfortable saying, "I know the U.S. is more open than China."]
and, finally,
Shi Tingchong, also 19 and a high school graduate, spent a year as an exchange student in Ohio. "I'm here because I worship him," she said. "I think he is someone who can really listen to us. Chinese government leaders just read from what's written down on documents."
[It would be patently unfair of me to criticize a young Chinese student, even with a year in Ohio, for mistaking teleprompters as being distinct from documents.]
Oh, and by the way Mr. President, that "non-censorship" thing? Back here across the Pacific, we have a nifty little term for it: "free speech".
Shi Tingchong, also said, "He is a great black president."
ReplyDeleteYes, the greatest black president we've ever had.
I thought he was a Pac president.
ReplyDelete"I'm here because I worship Obama". Good Grief! Can you spell mass psychosis? Here's the thing. After Obama screws up everything he can lay his hands on and gets his ass voted out of office, he'll be one of these leftist icons like Jimmy Carter, Rev. Tutu or Mary Robinson. He'll be on the cover of Rolling Stone hugging a washed up balding Bono or maybe that idiot singer (already bald) from Coldplay. He will not be allowed to crash and burn, he's just too damned black for that.
ReplyDelete