China: Bloggers declare war on Western media's Tibet coverage
Once the news of Tibetans slicing children's ears off and burning people alive sunk in, Chinese netizens worldwide seized onto initial misreported details from the situation in Tibet and don't seem willing to let this one go. In fact, they've declared cyberwar on major western media outlets, and anti-CNN.com is campaign headquarters.
As words like Tibet and Lhasa moved to the top of the GFW keyword list following the outbreak of violence and unrest in southwestern China earlier this month, a lot of attention to root causes to the Tibet situation simply stopped at anti-CNN.com's collection of photos, screenshots, furious accusations and non-sequiturs, most of which might hold up under scrutiny, as the collection made for convenient paste-and-copy blogging.
For bloggers trapped between two sides in a ruthless propaganda battle that has seen lives lost and a large part of China placed under military lock-down, there's of course a lot of frustration being felt about how to even begin blogging the situation. Then there are facts such as that young Tibetan militants in exile fully intended to created a disturbance in Lhasa for this year's Tibetan National Uprising Day and have talked openly about doing so for the past several months.
So how does one start addressing this now unfortunately prevalent attitude among Chinese bloggers seen in the intro on anti-CNN.com?
认清西方媒体卑鄙无耻的真面目
长期以来，以CNN、BBC为代表的西方某些媒体借新闻自由之名
对广大发展中国家进行了肆无忌惮的污蔑和诋毁
为了达到他们不可告人的目的
他们栽赃陷害、颠倒黑白、混淆是非、无中生有……真是无所不用其极
have been unscrupulously slandering and defaming developing nations
In order to achieve their unspoken goal
They mislead and they ensnare, switching black for white, confusing right and wrong, fabricating…willing to go to any length
在对2008年3月西藏骚乱的报道中
西方媒体的表演再一次向世人展示了他们丑恶的真实面目本网站旨在收集、整理并发布西方主流媒体作恶的证据
如果您看到任何西方媒体作恶的证据，请千万不要轻易放过他们
把它们保存起来并寄给我们
多收集一份他们的罪证，就是为我们争取到了多一点的空间我们关注所有西方媒体（不只是CNN），不限语言、内容（文本或图片）和国家
Western media's performance once again shows to the world their repulsive true face
This website seeks to collect, organize and publish the proof of the evil of western mainstream media
If you see any proof of Western media's evil, please do not whatsoever let them get off easily
Please save it and send it to us
The more evidence of their crimes we collect, the more space we'll have fought and won for ourselves
We are concerned with all western media (not only CNN), and not limited by language, content (text or photos) or country
这将是一场反抗西方话语霸权的斗争
我们应该充分认识到这场斗争的长期性、艰巨性和复杂性
但无论怎样，我们都坚信：西方国家妄图通过几个破媒体就一张臭嘴遮天的日子将一去不返了！
We need to fully recognize that this will be a long-term, difficult and complex battle
But regardless of the outcome, we all firmly believe:
Western nations’ days of using several of their crap media in an absurd attempt to fool people with their rotten words will soon be over for good!
Please see Global Voices Online's ongoing collection of related links at our special feature Tibet Protests 2008.
185 comments
People like Dan and all his supporters are the typical racists and hypocrites that pretend to be intelligent. You fool no one. First you questioned John credential on Tibet then you wrote whole bunch of rubbish without any reference and proof. So what is your credential?
Do you know when Tibet is under the ruling of Lama, there’s no basic human right? Do you know there’s no freedom of religion. Do you know women were either sex slave or slave ? Do you know all properties were owned by the Lama? 90% of the Tibetan are slaves, all must follow the Lama religion.
Do you want proof? The better question is can you handle the proof. Can you hanlde the proof that you are just a mindless puppet. Rather than just reading propaganda leaflets from free-tibet hippies, why don’t you go to any university libraries and you will find heaps of real history of Tibet. If you are too lazy or too scare to take the first step, try reading this by a real history proffesor, asumming you have the guts
http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html.
Tibetans and Falun Gong, fooling the world one idiot at a time.
To a certain extent I have to say that I agree that it is a good thing people are questioning what is on the western media. However, on this Tibetan issue, we still need to hear the Tibetan side of the story. So far what we heard is the opinions of the millions of Chinese media and bloggers and the western media.
What about the Tibetans? I may be ignorant but I an assuming, many of them in China probably don’t have internet access to voice their opinion. I also further assume that many of the Tibetans in China cannot speak sufficient enough English to argue their plight. If in fact that they are unhappy, then as the world we need to hear them out.
The Western media must hide the violence committed by Tibetan protesters because once that becomes obvious to the masses then Tibetan protesters and Tibetophiles will lose all moral authority. The logic is simple really: if Afro-Americans protest in the US for perceived unequal rights and discrimination then the public sentiments will be for them if the media run articles about discriminations 24×7. However, when Afro-Americans riot and start to burn, loot, and kill as they did in the LA riot the public sentiment quickly turned against them and their causes although it’s a fact that Afro-Americans have been treated unfairly in the US for centuries. It’s difficult to justify killing of innocents in such a wanton manner, even more so when the Tibetan leader is known to be a pacifist (or at least after the failed CIA armed revolt in the 50s).
For Western media and Tibetophiles, it’s easy to discredit the first hand witness accounts from both western and chinese tourists telling of the violent protesters; Simply say they are part of a Chinese government propaganda. Affirmation bias is rampant amongst the China-bashers. Just watch the comments in the forums: When approached with hard facts, the China-bashers will always resort to kneejerk comments such as “But that’s Chinese Propganda so it must be false and btw how much did the chinese government pay you to write this message?”
Some guy named Brent wrote: “How can China complain about unfair coverage when it wouldn’t even allow Western media in?”
This appears to be a popular excuse for the sloppy or intentionally biased reporting done by western media over Tibet. Think logically for one moment: Just because journalists cannot get inside Gitmo, would it be okay for major new outlets to take pictures of tortures in other prisons and run a story called “Torture in US prison”? If CNN, BBC, Der spiegel and other “respected” news outlets did this not only will the reporter be fired but someone up the management chain will probably resign as well. Journalism is about integrity. There is little authority for western media to blast Chinese media’s lack of integrity when its own people clearly lack the same basic journalistic quality.
I have written an update to my previous post concerning this ridiculous controversy:
http://jotman.blogspot.com/2008/03/this-is-follow-up-to-my-earlier-post.html
How about some perspective?
Over the years, Western news organizations have done a lot of good work that has served the interests of the people of China. They have investigated the plight of the Chinese peasantry, the destruction of China’s environment, the corruption that impedes prosperity, and shortcomings in the rule-of-law that have left Chinese people — especially the poor — without access to justice? One should keep this in mind.
What we must believe is our eyes! All the media around the world must be screened and identified by ourselves with our own eyes. Motive video is better than photo. Photos can easily be modified or cut to the size for politicians and their media to use, and be emphasied with their own motion.
We MUST use our own eyes to watch live video and carefully identify who were killed or hit.
When media supplied video that showed innocent people be killed, we have enough reason to believe the fact and know who are making the conflicts, or riots.
Don’t be cheated by the politicians! including the exile leader Dalai and his young followers, including western countries led by USA, UK, Germany and their media, even including the China government! They have their positions.
Dalai Lama backs Beijing Olympics
from Australia ABC News
Updated 10 March 2008 at 04:55:21
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says he backs China’s right to host the Olympic Games.
He made the statement after China’s top official in Tibet accused him of trying to sabotage the summer games.
The Dalai Lama called the Chinese official’s accusation “highly inflammatory”.
He said while he does not support the calls by Tibet support groups for a games boycott, he says they could remind the international community about the repression and urgency of the situation in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama is frustrated by China’s refusal to discuss ‘cultural autonomy’ for Tibet, but sees a window to sway public opinion ahead of the Olympics.
Gotta laugh at any comments of a “do you know what Tibet was like under the Dalai Lama?” nature? The Dalai Lama was a mere teenager when the Chinese invaded.
Many other arguments are laughable. He eats meat? Big deal. CIA funds? Yeah…they ended in 1974, and went almost entirely to PR campaigns (e.g. Tibet House in New York).
It’s hard to believe anything the Chinese say when the gap between their Dalai Lama propaganda (“a demon with the face of a human but the heart of a beast”…Tibet’s communist party head) and the easy-to-see public image of the Dalai Lama, via books, video, etc., is so huge.
we firmly support our government in dealing with this Tibet turmoil. Almost all young chinese assert those criminals should be punished severly. Want to bash china’s modernization course. NO WAY!
to judge a person, we shouldn’t only hear what they said but should see what they have done. We trust our government. Our government has done a great job in improving people’s lives. China is the fastest growing country in the world. We cherish our peaceful and happy lives.our future is bright.Tibetan chinese ‘s lives will be better and better. from my childhood, our teacher told us that all 56 ethnical groups of China should live together happily, which is also our government’s nationality policy. “cultural autonomy”??? how funny. No one had ever, never destroied their culture. all we focus is to develope our economy. we don’t like to do nonsense like you guys interfering other countries’ internal affairs. Our fate should be decided by all chinese peple not by foreigh people.