Western Media bias against China
- Thread starter SampanViking
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
Reining in biased foreign media reporting
I think most members here are familiar with the many accusations that have been made against western media reporting in China, and I will not repeat them here.
The aim of this thread is to see what China can do to stop this as the current strategy does not seem to work.
What I am wondering is, what is there to stop China passing a media reporting accuracy law?
Such a law will require all media organizations operating in China to take reasonable steps to ensure that their reporting is fair and accurate.
While fair and accurate is fairly subjective and hard to quantify, there are plenty of clear cut ways to catch out reporters who have blatantly crossed the line of independent reporting.
Examples are plentiful and many recent, a quick look on sites such as anti-CNN etc will give a whole host of great examples of sloppy fact-finding or even blatant fabrications and manipulations.
A code of conduct can be drawn up that is fair and reasonable, and should be made retrospective. So unless a media organization has made a formal apology with regard to the offending reporting and have followed through their own code of conduct in the treatment of the individuals responsible, then they will still be liable.
Media organizations that are found to have acted out of line will face steep fines.
If they refuse to pay, all their staff are barred from reporting in China and all of their publications banned. They should also be put on a public black list and all Chinese state owned or controlled firms banned from dealing with them in any way.
I know this is very simplistic, but this is merely an exercise to see if such a law would be viable.
Of course their will be an outcry, and China should bank on it and be very prudent to only go after the stories that are grotesquely biased to the point of being downright fabrications and lies.
Let the western media whip up a holy storm about how this is designed to stifle press freedom and then really show them up by prosecuting indefensible breaches of the media industry's own reporting standards. Things such as photoshopping pictures to paint China in the worst light possible and completely baseless captions or even wholly fabricated stories etc.
This won't stop biased reporting, but it will make the organizations and individuals responsible pay for their actions and will hopefully act as a deterrence to make individuals with an axe to grind think twice before writing the kind of baseless garbage that have been appearing in western media recently.
I think most members here are familiar with the many accusations that have been made against western media reporting in China, and I will not repeat them here.
The aim of this thread is to see what China can do to stop this as the current strategy does not seem to work.
What I am wondering is, what is there to stop China passing a media reporting accuracy law?
Such a law will require all media organizations operating in China to take reasonable steps to ensure that their reporting is fair and accurate.
While fair and accurate is fairly subjective and hard to quantify, there are plenty of clear cut ways to catch out reporters who have blatantly crossed the line of independent reporting.
Examples are plentiful and many recent, a quick look on sites such as anti-CNN etc will give a whole host of great examples of sloppy fact-finding or even blatant fabrications and manipulations.
A code of conduct can be drawn up that is fair and reasonable, and should be made retrospective. So unless a media organization has made a formal apology with regard to the offending reporting and have followed through their own code of conduct in the treatment of the individuals responsible, then they will still be liable.
Media organizations that are found to have acted out of line will face steep fines.
If they refuse to pay, all their staff are barred from reporting in China and all of their publications banned. They should also be put on a public black list and all Chinese state owned or controlled firms banned from dealing with them in any way.
I know this is very simplistic, but this is merely an exercise to see if such a law would be viable.
Of course their will be an outcry, and China should bank on it and be very prudent to only go after the stories that are grotesquely biased to the point of being downright fabrications and lies.
Let the western media whip up a holy storm about how this is designed to stifle press freedom and then really show them up by prosecuting indefensible breaches of the media industry's own reporting standards. Things such as photoshopping pictures to paint China in the worst light possible and completely baseless captions or even wholly fabricated stories etc.
This won't stop biased reporting, but it will make the organizations and individuals responsible pay for their actions and will hopefully act as a deterrence to make individuals with an axe to grind think twice before writing the kind of baseless garbage that have been appearing in western media recently.
Re: Reining in biased foreign media reporting
And who's going to judge those cases? Chinese courts, wich, per your assesment, is an involved party in that case?
Giving someone legal power to judge what is the truth is not leading anywhere, as it is the pwerfect tool for the government to ban all disagreeable reporting over what it did bad.
BTW, what if the government is reporting something wrong? Can it be charged in your system and will said government ban itself when it judges it didn't tell the truth?
And who's going to judge those cases? Chinese courts, wich, per your assesment, is an involved party in that case?
Giving someone legal power to judge what is the truth is not leading anywhere, as it is the pwerfect tool for the government to ban all disagreeable reporting over what it did bad.
BTW, what if the government is reporting something wrong? Can it be charged in your system and will said government ban itself when it judges it didn't tell the truth?
LostWraith
New Member
Re: Reining in biased foreign media reporting
First, I don't mean to be rude, but I doubt a threat like this will turn out productively at all and avoid disastrous flame wars, best to close it or at least have mods keep a close eye.
Regarding your topic, it is far too late for China to do anything about it. Any enforcement along the lines you suggest will just be seen as another form of censorship. Who is to decide what is the right and accurate version? How do we know the versions we hold to be true aren't lies themselves? Limiting press is never a good way of finding out the truth, and it just makes it easier for a few people with money or leverage to control the limited sources going out.
The Chinese people and the communist party have already been discredited by more than a generation of Western reporting, and there's nothing to salvage it at this point. A generic western family will never believe something a Chinese person says that goes directly contradictory to every western report, nor should they as reasonable people. The Chinese government is known as evil and manipulative, and the Chinese people simple mindless sheep that are all brainwashed by the magic of their state.
Of course not ALL westerners think that way. There's always skeptics to every theory, 100 years ago these skeptics believed in evolution and now the roles are reversed. If you watch some war docs from the 40s, their portrayal of the Chinese was completely different, described as peace loving, intelligent, resourceful, and industrious. There's the trendy believes, and there's the skeptics. Just let it be.
First, I don't mean to be rude, but I doubt a threat like this will turn out productively at all and avoid disastrous flame wars, best to close it or at least have mods keep a close eye.
Regarding your topic, it is far too late for China to do anything about it. Any enforcement along the lines you suggest will just be seen as another form of censorship. Who is to decide what is the right and accurate version? How do we know the versions we hold to be true aren't lies themselves? Limiting press is never a good way of finding out the truth, and it just makes it easier for a few people with money or leverage to control the limited sources going out.
The Chinese people and the communist party have already been discredited by more than a generation of Western reporting, and there's nothing to salvage it at this point. A generic western family will never believe something a Chinese person says that goes directly contradictory to every western report, nor should they as reasonable people. The Chinese government is known as evil and manipulative, and the Chinese people simple mindless sheep that are all brainwashed by the magic of their state.
Of course not ALL westerners think that way. There's always skeptics to every theory, 100 years ago these skeptics believed in evolution and now the roles are reversed. If you watch some war docs from the 40s, their portrayal of the Chinese was completely different, described as peace loving, intelligent, resourceful, and industrious. There's the trendy believes, and there's the skeptics. Just let it be.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Re: Reining in biased foreign media reporting
Well if you read what I suggested, you will see I never said anything about judging what is true, I even specifically stated that it is very hard to do so and that the best course would be to use rules to catch the blatant and indefensible rule breakers, of which there have been quite a few.
As an extension, the rules could easily judge the reporting standard based on how the reporter compiled his story and the procedures he went through. Things like basic fact finding and verification procedures that should be standard practice in any respectable news establishment.
To be extra careful, one can easily pick the rules right out of the western media's collective code of conduct and reporting best practices.
If any professional working in any field makes a massive cock-up or even breaks the rules of their own profession, then its only natural that they suffer censor.
This is the daily reality of every other major profession, and most are backed up with full blown legal regulation that carry prison terms for the most serious violations, be it doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers etc. Why should the media be any different? Especially when they are such an important part of everyone's daily lives.
The key is to not to focus on what was reported, but how that report was pulled together.
Sessions can take place in open court, with the defendants invited to defend their case if they so choose.
If found guilty, the punishment is on the employer, not the individual. It is then up to the employer to deal with the employee as they see fit. As such, there is not reason for the accused not to turn up and defend themselves.
Well if you read what I suggested, you will see I never said anything about judging what is true, I even specifically stated that it is very hard to do so and that the best course would be to use rules to catch the blatant and indefensible rule breakers, of which there have been quite a few.
As an extension, the rules could easily judge the reporting standard based on how the reporter compiled his story and the procedures he went through. Things like basic fact finding and verification procedures that should be standard practice in any respectable news establishment.
To be extra careful, one can easily pick the rules right out of the western media's collective code of conduct and reporting best practices.
If any professional working in any field makes a massive cock-up or even breaks the rules of their own profession, then its only natural that they suffer censor.
This is the daily reality of every other major profession, and most are backed up with full blown legal regulation that carry prison terms for the most serious violations, be it doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers etc. Why should the media be any different? Especially when they are such an important part of everyone's daily lives.
The key is to not to focus on what was reported, but how that report was pulled together.
Sessions can take place in open court, with the defendants invited to defend their case if they so choose.
If found guilty, the punishment is on the employer, not the individual. It is then up to the employer to deal with the employee as they see fit. As such, there is not reason for the accused not to turn up and defend themselves.
There is a difference between censorship and fabrication of news, given the choice I choose censorship !
I follow both news from media here in North America and those in China and I can honestly say the Chinese media reports on facts instead of intermingling "selected facts" and subjective editorial freedom into there so called reporting like those in North America and Europe. I have never read or heard any of the Chinese news medias talking ill about any foreign country's governments other than reporting the facts, the west has a lot to learn from China with over 4,800 years of statesmanship and civility !
You'll be the judge which media organization has the more "objective" reporting ?:
Xinhua
or New York Times and Business Week
I follow both news from media here in North America and those in China and I can honestly say the Chinese media reports on facts instead of intermingling "selected facts" and subjective editorial freedom into there so called reporting like those in North America and Europe. I have never read or heard any of the Chinese news medias talking ill about any foreign country's governments other than reporting the facts, the west has a lot to learn from China with over 4,800 years of statesmanship and civility !
You'll be the judge which media organization has the more "objective" reporting ?:
Xinhua
or New York Times and Business Week
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Re: Reining in biased foreign media reporting
well its basically the same as any other government, yes in theory, no in practice
well its basically the same as any other government, yes in theory, no in practice
Violet Oboe
Junior Member
"The Chinese people and the communist party have already been discredited by more than a generation of Western reporting, and there's nothing to salvage it at this point."
Yes, thats exactly what thoroughly incompetent and ignorant western media guys are thinking. Really funny how so called ´China correspondents´ barely capable of a few standard phrases in Mandarin are convinced of having done such a good job in discrediting ´big bad´ China and the ´evil´ CPC. It's like an illiterate Chinese immigrant recently arrived in Paris would suddenly begin blogging about how that crazy country called France is really working...:rofl:
Actually the real knowledge of the average ´generic western family´ about China is woefully inadequate since these people are mostly unaware of the significant and steadily rising impact of China on all aspects of their life. Currently the global economy is experiencing a cataclysmic upheaval since China is eventually assuming the role of the international creditor of last resort and consequentially in a short decade European/US banks will be mutually dependent on Chinese capital. Moreover in view of the deplorable condition of many european state budgets it is entirely conceivable that they will need Chinese ´soft money´ too.
So is the average european citizen being informed about this by his ´enviable free press´?? - of course not! He is simply left in the dark! (...as long as he does not read some business press periodicals!
)
Sure, all that crap about Tibet, human rights, animal rights, Three Gorges Dam, capital punishment, environmental pollution etc. is far more easy to digest for them since it focuses on ostensible weaknesses of China and corroborates implicitly the superiority of their own system.
Alas what will happen in a couple of years as Joe Sixpack will reluctantly discover that his mortgage is actually owned by ICBC, his employer is threatening to close the shop for Chinese competition and that his tax money is flowing straightly back to Beijing since his government owes some cool trillions to those ´communist baddies´. Possibly he will scream:"Those media f****** told me all the years about that human rights stuff but they did not tell me that the chinks own my pants!" (ok, irony mode off!)
Yes, thats exactly what thoroughly incompetent and ignorant western media guys are thinking. Really funny how so called ´China correspondents´ barely capable of a few standard phrases in Mandarin are convinced of having done such a good job in discrediting ´big bad´ China and the ´evil´ CPC. It's like an illiterate Chinese immigrant recently arrived in Paris would suddenly begin blogging about how that crazy country called France is really working...:rofl:
Actually the real knowledge of the average ´generic western family´ about China is woefully inadequate since these people are mostly unaware of the significant and steadily rising impact of China on all aspects of their life. Currently the global economy is experiencing a cataclysmic upheaval since China is eventually assuming the role of the international creditor of last resort and consequentially in a short decade European/US banks will be mutually dependent on Chinese capital. Moreover in view of the deplorable condition of many european state budgets it is entirely conceivable that they will need Chinese ´soft money´ too.
So is the average european citizen being informed about this by his ´enviable free press´?? - of course not! He is simply left in the dark! (...as long as he does not read some business press periodicals!
) Sure, all that crap about Tibet, human rights, animal rights, Three Gorges Dam, capital punishment, environmental pollution etc. is far more easy to digest for them since it focuses on ostensible weaknesses of China and corroborates implicitly the superiority of their own system.
Alas what will happen in a couple of years as Joe Sixpack will reluctantly discover that his mortgage is actually owned by ICBC, his employer is threatening to close the shop for Chinese competition and that his tax money is flowing straightly back to Beijing since his government owes some cool trillions to those ´communist baddies´. Possibly he will scream:"Those media f****** told me all the years about that human rights stuff but they did not tell me that the chinks own my pants!"
(ok, irony mode off!)
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bladerunner
Banned Idiot
How would a true but sensitive/ extremely embarassing story be handled.?
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