Hurling Frootmig, it is said, founded the guide, established its fundamental principles of honesty and idealism and went bust.
There followed many years of penury and heart-searching… He refounded the Guide, laid down its fundamental principles of honesty and idealism and where you could stuff them both, and led the Guide to its first major commercial success” (Douglas Adams, The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Last Thursday I spent a good 50 kuai to listen to some very prominent China journos giving their predictions for 2009. All speakers were Journalists from well respected publications, all with years of experience reporting from China, which means they have all been very wrong in their predictions many, many times in the past (I’m not just talking smack here, they said so themselves).
Nevertheless, it was an interesting discussion: It started with some predictions for China’s economy but naturally turned to the role of the legendarily vile Western Media.
One of the speakers was The Economist’s James Miles, who was the only foreign correspondent in Lhasa during the riots last year, and the one who probably gave the most accurate account of what actually happened in Lhasa on March 14Th. I think it was Miles who commented that the – how shall I call it – misreporting? many publications had been accused of stems not so much from a bias against China but more from the nature of the business and how is has evolved over the last few years.
Rebecca MacKinnon wrote something similar few weeks ago:
“A lot of errors happen because editors and reporters are under pressure to churn out volumes material on short deadline withinadequatestaff and funding. As a result… major mistakes get made by people whose work should have been checked before going out. Photos get cropped for websites without adequate thought. Agency material gets mis-labeled as being from one country when it was actually from another. Names of leaders get mixed up. Things get mis-translated. Errors go on air or get published online before somebody notices. It happens all the time“.
Well, it must be true, but I don’t think it explains it all, and I’m afraid we’re being a bit evasive here, pointing to tight deadlines and inexperienced interns. Yes, inexperienced people make mistakes, but the nature of those mistakes depends a lot on their previous knowledge, conceptions and prejudice.
Basically, and the very excellent Mutant Palm put it very well, we (reporters, editors, graphic designers and last but definitely not least – readers), are telling ourselves the same stories over and over again. Now anyone who has kids, or spends time around kids, or, in fact, anyone who has ever been a 4 year old knows how comforting it is to listen to a familiar story, so much less effort, so many more opportunities to express a well formed opinion. Who wouldn’t buy into that?
And so, the story of Tibet is always a story of peaceful monks protesting against despotic Communists. The story of China itself, at least for the last 20 years, is that of a student standing in front of a tank. Any new information will be entwined into these basic story lines, and possibly squeezed a bit so it fits.
It’s not only China reporting of course. The story of Africa, for example, is always that of hunger and some senseless trible wars (and please don’t ask me what te story of Africa really is. How would I know? I just read the papers).
So no, it’s not a conspiracy, just the comfort of the familiar. Will it change any time soon? Anyone who believes that must be underestimating the power of human lazines
#1 by Rich from Tampa on February 9th, 2009 - 6:48 pm
I enjoyed your Blog “Bed time stories….” The prism of Western Media objectivity and accuracy was apparent here in Tampa, Florida U.S.A., when a popular local weekly newspaper (Creative Loafing) printed an article about housing in China, which included the factoid that currently “Twenty Million Chinese have their residences in caves.”. The article claimed it was “reprinted from a December McClatchy Newspapers dispatch”. Those 20,000,000 cave-dwellers would be more than the combined populations of many of the major cities in the P.R.C.. Who wudda thunk it ?? RICH from Tampa.