It's not just about the sports events

Many Chinese still just don't get it about the media.

In this day and age, it is the readers who decide what the news is. You can bet that all our editors are looking at what gets “hits” on the websites.

So along come some Tibetan activists yesterday to hang a banner on a post near the Olympic Stadium.  In most countries, this would not be a big deal, a matter of a little public disturbance with people trying to express themselves. In China, of course, it’s a bigger deal. This country wants to stifle anything that is not sanctioned.

But here’s the big deal: Chinese security officials want to bully the press into covering only the Olympic events.

Read this blog post from Arnie Berko, a producer from ESPN (you may need to scroll down the blog to find it). If anyone is in Beijing to write and broadcast about sports, it’s ESPN. Arnie just happened to be riding a bike near the stadium at the time of the incident with the Tibet activists. I’ll excerpt a little:

I dropped my bike and started taking pictures. After a few minutes, I wanted to try to talk to the man up on the post. So, I climbed up the hill to get a closer look. I yelled out, "Hey buddy, who are you?" The policemen turned and looked at me, but didn't react. But then, a man in civilian clothes (he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt) started screaming at me and tried to wave me away.

I held up my credential and yelled out, "TV! Media! Press!"

The man kept yelling, speaking mostly in Mandarin; but through some broken English, he pointed to the stadium, saying, "You're only here for [this]." He was implying that I was only here to cover the Games and this protest was none of my business. Then, he screamed, "Who are you? Who are you?" I kept trying to explain I was credentialed media.

Some of the policemen walked toward me and grabbed me by the arm. They were angry and aggressive while holding on to me, yelling in my face. But I still kept yelling, "TV! Media! Press! TV! Media! Press!" The policemen were speaking into their walkie-talkies, but I didn't understand what they were saying.

Soon after the protester hung his banner, a fire truck arrived on the scene and workers removed it.

I then went back to the bottom of the hill and took more pictures. By that point, a fire truck pulled up and moved a cherry picker up the pole to try to bring down the protester. The same civilian came down the hill and started screaming at me again. Some of the onlookers joined in, and I was circled by people who started pushing and shoving me, screaming and pointing to the stadium. I never got hit or punched, but I was definitely physically accosted. I was trying to be smart about it and I wasn't hitting anyone, but I kept yelling, "Media! Press!"

Sorry but having Chinese “civilians” yell at foreign journalists is not going to get anywhere. The same thing just happened to me in Kashgar. I was at the scene of the assault on the police out there and a civilian guy comes up and starts berating my assistant, telling her in Chinese that she was helping the foreign media make China look bad. He told her to leave at once. Then when I was interviewing a local Uighur gentlemen, he went off and grabbed someone else who came along, flashed a badge at the Uighur and hauled him away in the middle of the interview.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, about 45 minutes earlier paramilitary police grabbed two Japanese journalists at the scene and took them away for a beating. Here’s the story I wrote about that.

So back to the point: The story isn’t the Tibetans hanging banners or other matters. It’s about how Chinese government officials, police and ordinary civilians (or in some cases people with power passing themselves off as ordinary civilians) treat the press.

If I’m wrong, have no fear. Blog and newspaper readers will realize it and stop reading. And I’ll be duly silenced.

Comments

[A B]

@Tim

That is why your readers are glad to have you in China.

So you can get the real story.

The incidents you recount show how far China have to go.

The good news: nothing more serious happened.

The bad news: they just wiped out billions and billions they spent trying to create a good impression.

[A B]

BTW:

I almost forgot to point out that under the press regulations for the Olympics, you were perfectly acting legally in going to Kashgar.

[A B]

Do you think it occurred to the bone heads in Kashgar that having western reporters checking out a story on Muslim terrorists actually is a very good thing for the government?

It would support the argument that China need the tight security and justify many of the draconian measures taken.

Since Beijing formally apologized for the treatment of the Japanese, Tim, you are definitely owed an apology.

Are you going to ask for one?

You shouldn't have to ask.

It should be forthcoming.

[kkkn]

I think the whole point of china being sensitive is that coverage is usually given to the few protectors that the reporter want to encourage. One protectors voice usually drowns out the other view which the reporter (and perhaps his reader) does not like to hear about.

More importantly, your readership is about whether you are right or wrong. Many reporters do continue to report on sensationally false news and continue to do very well. I guess reporters should realize that they have a sort of opinion leadership instead of just "innocently telling what happen".

[A B]

@k

There is a big difference between being sensitive to coverage and to physically beat up reporters or to threaten them when they are doing nothing more than their job.

There are no doubt many reporters that report on sensational stories and otherwise cause grief --- and many reporters who are honest, hard working members of the 4th estate doing a legitimate job. Tim, most definitely, is the latter.

The larger issue is that no matter how much the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Public Relations people recognize this, Chinese culture, and standard modus operandi for most individuals and organizations, is to try to make things look good (or cover up the problems) rather than to see truth and shining light on problems actually help resolving them. Not always, but often enough to warrant giving wide latitude to the press (broadly speaking), and to individuals in terms of freedom of expression.

Look in Chinese history, and you will find that the periods of repression and suppression of ideas is concomitant with weak rules, dynastic decline, and general degeneracy.

The Chinese people just came out of one of those periods and is still recovering from the damage inflicted on them.

[A B]

Tim, I hate to "politicize" your blog....

But.... According to the NY TImes, "For the first time, the Dalai Lama is willing to state that he can accept the socialist system in Tibet under Communist Party rule. This is something that Beijing has always demanded, and, after long discussion, the Dalai Lama has agreed to do so.

“The main thing is to preserve our culture, to preserve the character of Tibet,” the Dalai Lama told me. “That is what is most important, not politics.”"

It is too late to salvage the harm done by Beijing's ham fisted way of dealing with the Olympics.

It is not too late to invite the Dai Lai Lama to the closing ceremonies.

Let's hope President Hu have the courage and audacity to extend an olive branch to the Dai Lai Lama and truly usher in a new age for China.

Terrorists, counter-revolutionaries, etc. all can become very respectable people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/opinion/07kristof.html?8dpc

[on the other hand]

It's old mentality plus the principal agent problem: local agents care so much less about making a hundred rights in terms of media coverage than about preventing one wrong. The former won't give them a promotion, while the latter can almost guarantee a demotion.

With regards to "it is the readers who decide what the news is", the problem is that readers not only decide WHAT they want to see reported, but also HOW stories are reported. So media slant their coverage to cater to readers' prior beliefs and opinions---this is the dangerous part. I'm making this comment on purely abstract terms and not with regards to Tim's case here.

[on the other hand]

There are more practical issues involved with regards to Tibet. How is China to deal with the hundreds of thousands of "exile" Tibetans abroad? Take all of them back to Tibet? Are they willing to go back to Tibet/China? Also, what to do with the local Tibetan cadres in Tibet once the Dalai Lama is back? The Dalai Lama for sure don't like them. In a sense, both groups (exile Tibetans and local Tibetan cadres) don't want to see the Tibetan issue resolved.

[A B]

@on

It is the job of a good journalist to provoke, to help us see things not only truthfully, but to help us change our minds.

Tim cannot be too far ahead of his audience, but he doesn't have to just tell them what they want to hear.

As a journalist, you can't push the envelope all the time, every time, but you got to do it some of the time, or you are not doing your job. Tim is doing a very good job for his audience.

What is needed is for the people that bullied Tim and his assistant to get demoted or fired.

That will send the right message.

[A B]

@on

There are lots of hot heads on both sides that prefer to continue the status quo (no matter how many people are harmed).

It is the job of President Hu and Premier Wen and the Dailai Lama to work out a solution that is truly to the benefit of the Chinese people, which include Chinese of Tibetan extract.

Yes, practical issues, and not platitudes, is what detailed negotiations and implementation involves. But in order to have these practical issues addressed, there has to be a meeting of minds at the top of both camps that it is time for an agreement to be reached.

No doubt the Dailai Lama and Beijing will have to quash opponents to a deal in their own camp once a deal is reached.

It would not be pretty, but at least, it will have to be done.

[on the other hand]

Again, I was not commenting on Tim's case above. I'm sorry for Tim's experience.

With regards to journalists catering to readers' prior opnions (bias, beliefs, etc.) and slant their reports, here is an influential paper (at least in the academia) by Harvard economics professor Andrew Schleifer: "the market for news", American Economic Review, 2006, that I recommend interested people to read. There are other academic papers on this topic, but this one has simpler mathematics.

[Relax]

Not a big deal?

i would like to know one day when your children get married, some guests at the wedding ceremony hang some "harmless" banners washing some dirty laudry and exposing some naughthy secrets about your family in front of everyone. Try to resist asking the security guys to escort these goons out.

West chauvinism is hillarious. LOL

[A B]

@Relax

This is not a wedding, which is a private occasion.

This is a party where virtually everyone is invited, regardless of their race, color, creed, religion....

In theory... they are suppose to set aside their rivalries long enough to run the games.

It is more like a G8 meeting, a UN meeting, or like events that is a magnet for people who want to make a point.

You can dis-invite or keep out the worst of the lot, but it is impossible to keep out all of them, as you can see.

This kind of grief has happened at almost every major international event (like even as tame a thing as a soccer game).

So Beijing just have to learn to manage and live with it.... as long as no serious physical assaults happen.

BTW, suppose a like event is held, say in Washington, or Denver (like the DNC Conference), is there anything that stops a few thousand Chinese from China traveling there to protest?

Be fair --- it is "open season" within non-violent and reasonable legal protest boundaries.

[Relax]

@A B

LOL, When West chauvinism is rampant, anything China do is wrong.

Look at those Tibetan terrorists who killed and arsoned around (this is super violent, obviously). When the Chinese police try to control the situation, the West fark those Chinese policemen who are doing their job (then what? they should just stand there letting the mobs kill more people?)

It is hillarious to see so many westerners signing petition supporting these Tibetan terroriosts. Looks like double standard is a rampant western culture.

LOL.... western Chauvinismm dictates what china should or should not do. When you are in China, do what Chinese do. You don't act like big boss, come to China and ask every one to follow your moral standards Every home and country has its own rules so don't think u guys are so high and mighty requesting the host to kowtow to u. Western Chauvinism is damm hillarious.

[A B]

@Relax

It is easy to dismiss everything as Western chauvinism.

How about taking some of it at face value where it is legitimate?

Do you honestly regard western reports of what happened in 1989 to be a simple product of chauvinism?

Do you regard western accounts of the cultural revolution as completely without merit?

[Marvin L Foushee]

US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE KILLS 5 MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY AFTER INFILTRATING THE KKK AND THE AMERICAN NAZI PARTY AND URGING MEMBERS TO CARRY GUNS TO THE ANTI-KLAN MARCH AND KILL THE MARCHERS.

The Greensboro massacre occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. In the shoot-out, five marchers were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party while in a protest. It was the culmination of attempts by the Communist Workers Party to organize industrial workers, predominantly black, in the area.[citation needed] The protestors killed were: Sandi Smith, a nurse and civil rights activist; Dr. James Waller, president of a local textile workers union who gave up his medical practice to defend workers; Bill Sampson, a Harvard University graduate in the school of divinity; Cesar Cause, an immigrant from Cuba who graduated magna cum laude from Duke University; and Dr. Michael Nathan, chief of pediatrics at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, NC, a clinic that helped children from low-income families.

On the day in question, a rally and march of industrial workers and communists was planned in Greensboro against the Ku Klux Klan, then active in the area. The Death to the Klan March was to begin in a predominantly black housing project called Morningside Heights.[1] During the rally turned shoot-out, a caravan of cars holding Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects. The Klansmen and Nazis got out of the cars and opened fire on the demonstrators with shotguns, rifles and pistols. Cauce, Waller, and Sampson were killed. Smith was shot between the eyes as she peeked from her hiding place. Eleven others were wounded. Mike Nathan later died from gunshot wounds.[2] Much of the armed confrontation was captured by four local news camera crews.

Role of the police

One of the most dubious aspects of the shoot-out is the role of the police. Normally, the police would have been present at such an event, yet no police were present at the shooting, thus permitting most of the perpetrators to escape. One police detective and a police photographer followed the Klan and Nazi caravan to the site, yet did not intervene. Edward Dawson, a Klan member since 1964 who had turned police informant[3], was in the lead car of the caravan.[2] Two days prior to the march one of the Klan members went to the police station to obtain the map of the march and the rally.[1] Bernard Butkovich, an undercover agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms later testified that he was aware that Ku Klux Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party unit he had infiltrated would confront the demonstrators. In previous testimony, the Nazis claimed that the agent encouraged them to take guns to the anti-Klan demonstration.[4] This has led to accusations of police collusion in the event.

The Klansman and Nazi party members involved were not from Greensboro, but came to the city in response to a challenge from the march organizers. Articles in the Greensboro News and Record at the time indicated that the police were not at the scene initially because the march organizers gave them an incorrect address for the march on their parade permit. However, it has also been noted that the Klan caravan was organized by a man later found to be an informant for the police, using the parade permit to guide the caravan to the correct address, in radio contact with the police all the while the caravan was forming and proceeding to the site of the shootings, and that the police were on the scene early, but had been dismissed "for lunch," just prior to the shootings.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Legal Proceedings

Forty Klansmen and Nazis were involved in the shootings, sixteen were arrested and only six were brought to trial.[3] Two criminal trials resulted in acquittal of all defendants by all white juries.[2]

[Stan]

Marvin....You went off your medication again..please double down on the dose.If that doesn't help there is always Twinkies,Pizza Hut and KFC to placate your raging inbred genes.This is an interesting exchange of views so go to your room and let the adults talk.

[chinese buddhist]

@ RELAX: Thank you, for some PLAIN SPEAKING -- much needed by these western chauvinists. Wonder why they don't go back to their Western Paradises, since nobody in China (especially policemen) is actually INVITING them to stay? Since they worry so much about Chinese human-rights, I must say that I feel okay with whatever I have: Buddhist, but not LAMAIST. Oddly, I am sad about IRAQ & the hundreds of thousands there, who have lost not only their rights, but also their lives. Needlessly. Thanks to lying Bush & Co., with connivance of Western Media, e.g. likes of Tim Johnson.

[Eve]

By attacking reporters, the Chinese make their repression the story, which is way more damaging than letting the reporter cover a protest, or interview someone. The Chinese are acting like kids, bullies who want it all their way. They don't yet understand how the world, especially the west works. If they want the games to be the great success they've worked hard for--want the world to be in awe of them, they will stop attacking the messenger and work only on the message.

[Stan]

@relax
@chinese buddhist

You are being redundant with the use of the word "chauvinist"...what was that , your new word for the day in Etymology 101?

A thought for you to ponder the next time your excessive partiality rears it's ugly head...Millions of Chinese have left/fled China over the past 100 years .(Go to any city in the world and you will find a "China Town")This flow continues to this day. Stop being vulgar, blind cyber thugs and acknowledge and then try to address a demeaning aspect of your society. (The surpression of a free press in case you miss the point) Your inept ranting is like the pollution in Beijing...it is unhealthy and it obsures a rich past complimented by an impressive present. Tim is just reporting what occured, the both of you are trying to justify events that were wrong and inappropriate in any the forum of open minded people.

[Eve]

A practical example of what I stated above. The Chinese revoked the visa of Joey Cheek the night before he was supposed to leave for China, probably as he is head of Team Darfur, which works for ending the violence in the Sudan. Late yesterday Team USA voted to have Lopez Lamong, who was born in Sudan and fled the violence as a child, carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremonies. This is a huge honor, and I believe he was chosen due to Chinese action against Cheek. Instead of choosing a marquee name like Michael Phelps to carry the flag, instead they voted for Lamong, who will now be profiled extensively by the media, thus promoting Team Darfur and the conflict in Sudan.

[grace]

Tim,

I thought you've been in China for quite a while and you should know better than rest of americans. But no you still don't get China at all, do you. This is kind of old story we've heard again and again already - a typical western journalist story. Nothing is perfect, if you dig, you could always find story like this on your side..

[Relax]

If you do not like how Chinese police handle things, fine. You can leave China. No one is forcing you to stay.

But if you already know that you disagree with the way they handle things, yet still go to China and create havoc, and get "bullied", then obviously something is very wrong with you (plain stupid isn't it?)

dear western high-and-mighty people. Let's face it, the world is diverse. Different cultures and different countries do things different ly. That is the real world. Accept it. Don't come and dictate how China should do things, because why people must listen to you, the holier than you people, what is right and what is wrong? This is not your country, you are the guests, so respect the host. Simple as that.

If you go to a home where the owner is an asian, most likely you have to take your shoes off, don't act like you are an always-right big boss and wear your shoes into the house. Get the right.

China wants it to be perfect, they do what they think is right to make this event a success. if you disagree with what they do, just leave. Don't whine when you are looking for trouble and create havoc for the host. maybe in your culture, ruining a big event or someones wedding is a small matter, but in China, be sensitive to Chinese culture.

Western Chauvinism is so hillarious. Maybe westerners have so much time to mind China business and shove their moral standard shit down chinese throat, after they got bored of killing Iraqians.

[Relax]

@Stan

LOL, the pot laughs the kettle black. Look at your own words.

[Wilbur Varela]

Today, on the Eve of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, let us set aside our differences and suspicions. In the ancient tradition of the Olympics, let us call for a truce, to put down our weapons, and come together as friends. We are all human beings.

We congratulate the Chinese people on their long difficult journey, and welcome them to the community of Nations. May the athletes compete in the spirit of our ancestors, and we wish peace for all. Good luck China.

tomorrow will come soon enough, but for today, we say, "Gong si!"