Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp. is so sad, but he has "no choice."

Earlier this year, James Murdoch, his younger son and head of operations for News Corp in Asia, pleased the Chinese authorities with strong criticism of the outlawed mystic movement, Falun Gong.

This wasn't just a coincidence. So lets see, AOL Time Warner and Murdoch's News Corp get a cable channel in a restricted area in Guangdong province, right across from Hong Kong which already broadcasts more open channels, while the Peoples Republic of China, aka Big Brother PRC, gets a China Central Television channel that will "be widely available in the US." As Orwell says in Animal Farm, we are all equal but some are more equal than others...

Big Brother PRC, coming soon to your cable network, courtesy of the US Big Brothers, The Megamedias.

I thought they already had full access- via CNN.

FYI

OTHER THREAD

The Chinese are playing us. Big time. They know we don't have censors like they do. The media is either 'their position, or no position'.

They are trying to get this in order to undermine what they see as anti-Chinese forces as well as to win friends and build a constituency.

They are very skilled at propaganda. They want to change the world's perception of the Communist Party.

I think we should limit their broadcasts to an area along the edge of the Rio Grande and only allow broadcasts in Mandarin.

I thought they already had full access- via CNN.

LOL, you have a point there. While the new PRC propoganda channel might frequently mirror the poltical agenda as CNN, it will be far more interesting to see the communist PRC media shills try to blow BS by FoxNews devotees ;)

Their position goes unchallenged. They are, and always have been on a media offensive.

They lie and contort the truth just so people will like them. If you think CNN was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.

These guys can justify the killing of 30-70 million people and forced suppression of all sorts and make the party look totally innocent in the process.

I seriously think we have to balance out their media offensive with one of our own.

Thanks for the linking the threads, piasa. Heres a third one on the subject, an AP version:

Report: China May OK AOL Time Warner

I've seen China Central TV before. You can currently get it in the US with some fairly simple satellite equipment. It's not a blatant propaganda machine (you know, movies about the revolution and such) - it's more dangerous than that. They have their news stories, and they present their side as fact. Some idiot watching the channel that has no idea its run by the commies will probably think he's watching a normal newscast.

The channel's already here. There's no way it will get on regular cable systems though...the systems are maxed out. I've always suspected it would be on digital cable eventually. Looks like we're closer to reality than I had hoped.

"I thought they already had full access- via CNN."

I slogged around on FR for some hours waiting for this article to be posted just so I could chime in with a comment akin to yours. Thanks.

With Mr. Murdoch's concerned face in the mix it's nice to know he cares.

A friend of mine just got back from China, and said that once he left Beijing for the rural area closer to Tibet, the conditions were really hard on the Chinese, very low tech and poor. I have compassion for these people, especially with the old school communists supressing freedom. I have mixed feelings about trade with the PRC, on the one hand it can speed up the peoples awareness and help there living conditions, on the other it can give more power to the Chicoms and allow them to be an even bigger threat to the US and other countries. I would be interested in hearing the thoughts of Americans with Chinese heritage on the subject.

The question is, who the heck will make up the 'new viewer' target of the Chinese? If you're an average American, why get your news from some Chinese guy 8,000 miles away? Jim down at the engine factory isn't going to watch it when he comes home from work. Most if not all Chinese-Americans know darn well who it's controlled by, and they'll stay away, regardless of the language it's in. And the people who want to watch it can already get it.

It would be nice if we could- but we can't even balance our own network news, since TV programming is less local than ever and now largely in the hands of a few people who also control radio, large internet resources, movies studios, and even newspapers. There is very little choice in what broadcasts you receive- they're much the same, as we have noted in waves of global-warming propaganda in print, broadcasting and film; waves of anti-SDI stuff; waves of anti-business stuff on oil drilling; waves of 'save the whales,' waves of 'save the homeless' or whatever fad is in too. A good example is the hype associated with sharks going on now- it has reached such epic proportions that it has dropped tourism in some Florida towns by over a third- never mind how insignifigant they are on average or even compared to the dangers of normal American life. When one company determines something sells, or when it looks like it is doing well on a subject, others dive in on the same theme, expanding the impact.

I've seen China's official news program on cable here- one of the stations broadcasts full news broadcasts from around the world. That's great, since you can see all sides and the bullcrap sticks out more. But I don't see how putting an American broadcast from a company that puts out lefty broadcasts to begin with (all of ours, including fox, are watered down garbage) getting into one province is going to be equivalent to putting Chinese BS on US tv over a broader area. Were our own media unbiased and objective, I wouldn't have a problem with it because we'd win that one.

On the other hand, it could turn out like their silly theme park down here in FL, LOL. Not likely though. Chinese web news is put out on mirror sites here already, designed to look American and professional and of course, when you look up their IPs it seems American enough. But dig deeper and you can find that the sources aren't so American. But most don't dig deeper, and find out that the site is a mirror site of a government news service in China. They are professional propagandists, but like all propagandists they do best among the ignorant, easily manipulated types... even mainlanders don't buy into it if well educated and curious, though they don't know what to believe. The problem is, the average American accepts propaganda rather easily- I see it on FR among very intense conservatives as often as I see it on leftist sites.

Thanks for the heads up!

It might not all be obvious news. It might be other types of programming, like children's shows. Why not? Disney's recent forays into pedo-propaganda work well, wouldn't you say? I had neices who refused to eat fish because of 'the little mermaid.' And the anti-hunter, anti-gun message of some seems to get through, while Disney's old classics wouldn't even be made today because they were patriotic or because the hero was a white guy carrying a kentucky rifle. Mr. Rodgers Show was not one to avoid political manipulation, either- on that show he had anti-nuclear messages on at least one occasion. While our programming is bent toward teaching pacifistic responses even at the point of a gun, marxist propaganda ranges from advocating suicide attacks to riling up people for the purposes of storming a US embassy. And most of all, teaching loyalty to some version of the 'revolution' though it may have different names according to the government or leadership in question. All of it contains the message of 'moral equivalence' or pushes guilt on people with consciences. (The only victims of that sort of propaganda are people with consciences- and not everyone has one that can be heard.)

I am not Chinese but I have been there a few times. Here you go though.

One thing you can be sure of, the Communists are definately taking their cut of the money. The CCP is nothing more than a mafia.

They proclaim a 'private sector' but all that means is the CCP went into the private business industry. All they did is change the label.

In many ways doing trade with China makes things worse. While the government is putting in a 50,000 gallon fountain in Beijing for the olympics, and spending huge amounts on military computers, these people are going hungry.

Beijing is notorious for remembering Beijing but forgetting everyone else. The have this stupid central government mentality. As long as Beijing has things, and as long as they don't see those problems somewhere else, then the 'country' is ok. To them their 'country' consists of the administrative rule of the Party. It also consists of a small constituency of elite people in the big cities where they come from.

The only time the poor people in those areas get attention is when they riot and threaten the party. Then when they do that they all get arrested or shot or beaten, or all of the above.

The party looks on those people as trouble and a burden. They are viewed as hicks who have created their own problems. It goes way back to the whole 'barbarian' mentality. It has been that way forever, but just recently (in the wake and fear of social unrest) has the party acknowleged there was a "small" problem and paid lip service to it. They said they would do something about it but so far, nadda.

The party's vision does not go very far outside of Beijing or some other big elitist capital. Beijing is still the middle of the middle kingdom. These poor people are subjects on the edges of the kingdom therefore they are lesser people. I am being serious. The party will never admit to it, but that is the way they think. China has not fundamentally changed at all.

In the current situation even if the people of those areas wanted to do something for themselves they cannot. First off they are denied education in one way or another. Secondly, if they wanted to start a company and make money the party won't like that. Self empowerment in those regions means seperatist movements and different identities.

The party has to walk a fine line. They cannot let those people starve, or they will riot. They also cannot let them do their own thing and control their own situation and destiny because that is against the party's control.

As far as our money helping people, we are only helping the people that have favor with Beijing. That means the people in those big metro urban areas where the policians come from. Even if they do let someone open shop in a poor area, rest assured the state run media will be there blowing the CCP's trumpet the whole way. They will make sure that everyone knows how generous and good the party is for bestowing such a generous gift.

The party only has token representation of those groups of people. For example they will find one of the ONLY guys in all of XinJiang who like Beijing and appoint him as the leader representing everyone. Leadership must be properly indoctrinated. Indoctrination comes first, representation of the party comes second, and representation of where you come from is dead last. Even this move to allow capitalists into the party, although a small move in the right direction, is not fixing anything. It is just a token because all they will do is sift through every capitalist they can find and pick the only guy that says Beijing is infallable.

'save the whales,' waves of 'save the homeless' or whatever fad is in too.

On a side note, I was driving along the road the other day and I saw some signs. The first one said, SAVE THE PLANET. A few hundred yards down another one said, SAVE THE WHALES. Every few hundred yards there was another one, about 5 in total. The last one was the punch line. It said, "GEEZ GUYS! SAVE SOMETHING!"

But I don't see how putting an American broadcast from a company that puts out lefty broadcasts to begin with (all of ours, including fox, are watered down garbage) getting into one province is going to be equivalent to putting Chinese BS on US tv over a broader area.

Not to mention even if these guys DID start to bash Beijing, or at least tell the WHOLE story, they would be shut down in a heartbeat.

They are professional propagandists, but like all propagandists they do best among the ignorant, easily manipulated types... even mainlanders don't buy into it if well educated and curious, though they don't know what to believe. The problem is, the average American accepts propaganda rather easily- I see it on FR among very intense conservatives as often as I see it on leftist sites.

I am on the same wave as you are... I saw one article today that made this huge deal about China. The whole crux of the article was that Beijing just wants respect...This was in OUR print media.

These people are not experts on China, they don't know anything about China, yet they were wrote off everything and adopted the line "despite everything, the Chinese government is good and deserves the respect of all American people." By the way they also took the position that Taiwan was bad, and that all the conflict over everything was all Taiwan's fault.

It is a good thing that you have compassion for those people because the Chinese government sure doesn't.

I think you summed that up extremely well. Beijing is like Cook County Illinois. Maybe we should study Chicago, and then we'll understand China a little better, LOL. Free trade- if you know the right union boss and politicians- but still a mess, and the rest of the state suffers for it.

Beijing is notorious for remembering Beijing but forgetting everyone else. The have this stupid central government mentality. As long as Beijing has things, and as long as they don't see those problems somewhere else, then the 'country' is ok. "

This sounds like China as described to me by Chinese here.

The party looks on those people as trouble and a burden. They are viewed as hicks who have created their own problems. It goes way back to the whole 'barbarian' mentality.

This seems very true- while people from the big cities in China have a rather arrogant attitude even over here- people from the backwater areas seem like they are almost apologistic for even taking up air, water and space. I get the feeling that whatever spirit they have left walks around in them with a bowed head.