Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

It goes without saying that when we get news from a network or newspaper controlled by a communist country we should take it with a grain of salt. The coverage of the Tibet situation is obviously biased in the Chinese media. It showed the violence started by rioters but not the police violence against peaceful protestors. It showed Chinese being injured by Tibetans but not the real number of Tibetans that were killed or injured. But even the media here have shown bias. Chinese business that were trashed were not shown here. CNN has been accused by the Chinese of only showing the police against the protesters but not the damage caused by them. I have not seen CNN try to defend itself. The protest in Paris turned ugly when protesters attack a Chinese disabled athlete carrying the torch in a wheelchair. That did not get mention here until it caused a big storm in China. By not being even-handed the western media only causes nationalism in autocratic countries and hurt democratic movements.

I think I have mentioned in the past that when I was in Hong Kong last year, every time I saw a discussion of Hong Kong's 10 year under Chinese rule on tv it was predictable what was being said. On Chinese tv a western businessman would talk about how wonderful the last 10 years has been. On CNN or the BBC a Chinese dissident would say how awful China has been to Hong Kong in the last 10 years. The truth is of course in between. Hong Kong is still a great place to do business and the standard of living continues to go up. It is also true that local newspapers have to fear repurcussions if they are very critical of the government. But it is telling how each side of the media tries to manipulate opinions by the way they present the news.

The other day I was watching CNN broadcasting from U. of Penn. They brought in 3 students and asked them who they are voting for. The white male said Clinton, the white female said Obama and the black guy said McCain. If this is not manipulation by the media I don't know what is. Why can't they report reality instead of political correctness? My advice is: no matter where you get the news, just consider the source of the information before making any judgment.