plawolf
Lieutenant General
Has there been anything significant to add to the story after the first couple of days.?
When I first read about the story, it was headlining as a very brief matter-of-fact report of what happened.
Less than one day later (probably less than 12 hours in fact, but I did not note down when the first report broke, and that has since disappeared so I cannot check), a more detailed version was published, which was on the 19th and the one linked above. Yet barely a day later and that story is at the very bottom of the page ready to be pushed into the archives by anything newsworthy at all? That is hardly normal for a matter as serious as this, and extremely quick turnaround for any story.
Hell, I nearly didn't find it and I was looking for it today. It would have been very easy for your casual reader to miss this entirely, which I think is the whole point.
Yet can anyone remember a negative story about China that disappeared into the archives anywhere close as this rapidly?
Anything positive or that paints China in a sympathetic light gets reported, but is taken off the news page and dumped into the archives with indecent haste while negative stories about China gets prime placement and kept there for as long as possible to maximize exposure, so the casual reader forms the desired negative impression about China without the BBC having to lie or make things up. But that is close to just as manipulative and more underhanded.
Say what you like about censors, but at least they are upfront about what they are doing instead of trying to sell a twisted version of events as the unvarnished truth.
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