April 18, 2008

Pay No Attention to Your Feelings

Why Can’t “Lefty” Ideologues Comprehend
China’s Human Rights Failures?
My reaction to this:
CNN MARCH 13 REPORT ON INDIA

Western Media Fabrications regarding the Tibet Riots
Fake Videotape used by CNN, by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, April 16, 2008

"On the day of the Lhasa Riots (March 14, 2008), there is evidence of media fabrication by CNN,"[...]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8697

Michel Chossudovsky is an intensely credentialed individual with books published and tenure at a big time Canadian university and a terrific blog, which I read several times a week. However, the hysteria he has displayed over how western media has represented the story of the second Tibetan uprising is disconcerting, to say the least. At times in the past, my inclination has been to grant the professor the benefit of the doubt, for all the above reasons as well as having enjoyed several of his articles at globalreasearch.ca. The difficulty comes in trying to get a handle on what he wants to accomplish vis-à-vis his articles on US/China/Tibet affairs.
It seems the professor has sufficient time to hunt and peck for ulterior motives behind what clearly was the natural development of people deciding to take their smoldering rage and fling it outward, elsewhere, anywhere. There’s just so much occupation and exile a person can tolerate before the idea of death at the hands of ATTEMPTING liberation seems better than daily compliance with being conquered.
CNN broadcasts over televisions and requires visuals to accompany their news reports. But you had to report CNN had no footage, only photographs. Why? “… the Chinese government has refused to allow CNN to even enter Tibet.”
What to do? Like many other news outlets, show footage that is related, if not precise. CNN then picks up the narrative from the reporter in Beijing:

John Vause in Bejing: "And what could be worrying here to Beijing is that these demonstrations are being joined by ordinary Tibetan civilians, lay Tibetans." [my bold]
In his report Mr. Vause declared there was a complete crackdown on transportation, communication, etc. Did the Tibetans do this to themselves? Why does the Chinese government continue to keep Tibet isolated? More pertinent to this discussion, why don’t you, Professor, care about the Tibetans? Perhaps CNN used bad judgment but it would be much more reprehensible if they were presenting an outright falsehood. People don’t expect hard news from CNN. We get the headlines and photos, then we all go to the Internet and read Michel Chossudovsky who tells us we’re idiots for caring about people who’s lives are so controlled their own government absolutely won’t let us look at their daily lives!
The real story here was that Beijing, enraged that their carefully crafted image of harmony was smeared by their own bad behavior, sent the entire nation of Tibet into a virtual prison by cutting them off from all communication. That is the story, Professor Chossudovsky, not the obvious fact that CNN mishandled the story by using the wrong footage. The story began on March 13, when the people of Tibet, within and in exile all over the world rose as one to be heard. And their story
was
heard and will continue to be heard, despite misinformation and misrepresentation, wherever it comes from.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice common sense; refreshing actually. The Chinese "rulers" of Tibet are in fact responsible for mismanaging Tibet, as the fact of Tibetan riots against Chinese "rule" quite clearly demonstrate.