Shanghaiist: Defy: I don't watch CCTV

Fuzi

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:57:08 +0800

I can only speak for myself, but as for believing the major media outlets, western or otherwise, I always take a skeptical view of what they're trying to sell. I weigh the reports from many different outlets to come to my own conclusions. I do not simply accept what one corporate media wh*re says as sacrosanct.

WatchBagDVD

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:37:11 +0800

"Most" is accurate, I think, based on personal experience, but the thing is that people mistrust different news outlets. Right-wing Americans who were pro-Bush around 2001-2004 saw a "liberal bias" in "mainstream media" and rejected reporting from the New York Times and, often, CNN while trusting FOX news and other right-leaning media. Many urban college-educated Americans, however, see Fox as being horribly skewed to the right and take the New York Times, say, as a more reliable source while still recognizing that it's often compromised in various ways. So yes, most Americans--and I'll limit myself to Americans, since America's what I know best--don't fully trust media outlets but, given the relative range of different media outlets in the US vs. the PRC, they trust some more than others, and it varies. But sure, when it comes to something like China, most Americans don't know enough in a first-hand sense to make much of a judgment and are prone to believe what they see on CNN or MSNBC or read in their newspaper. My point is primarily that if you're Chinese and you believe that Westerners reflexively believe everything they see or read in Western media, you have a really distorted and inaccurate picture of how Westerners think about Western media.

concor1

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:00:20 +0800

most? how do you know?

WatchBagDVD

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:49:11 +0800

richardlee, thank you for the info on the history of the "don't be like CCTV" phrase. I have a proposal for you: you try not to make big assumptions about what "Westerners" think and I'll do the same for what Chinese people think. I'm saying this because if you knew much about the US and Europe, you'd know that there's similar levels of deep distrust of major corporate media. Most Americans don't trust CNN, FOX and other major media outlets to be bias-free. That's the reality, all right? You know, we agree on a lot of things, including the fact that major media outlets, whether corporate or government controlled, have agendas that serve things other than the truth.

richardlee

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:45:25 +0800

does this song make you guys feel better? It has been a very popular phrase: "don't be like CCTV"(it means people should not ignore the truth). After Tibet riot, Chinese netizens change it into "don't be like CNN". So CCTV was the first one that was criticized by Chinese, not CNN. Confront the reality? yes. it is very needed for Westerners. it takes a lot of courage to confess that your Western media is biased.

bamboos

Fri, 02 May 2008 23:00:05 +0800

does this song make you feel better when you watch CNN/BBC? hehe. very interesting!

unterseeboot

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:46:29 +0800

there is already a youtube video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVGwvz_NJRk

vladivostok

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:14:41 +0800

T: Those are great lyrics. I am going to put them to song right away.

T

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:01:16 +0800

I am an antichrist I am an anarchist Don't know what I want but I know how to get it I wanna destroy the passer- by cos I I wanna be anarchy !

EL JEFE

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:03:50 +0800

"So they have a royal peridot!" "Push and pull its roiling nose"

callipers

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:01:51 +0800

Leave it to punk rock to state the obvious and intelligent self-reflection that is so much needed in China. Chinese can live in denial and keep blaming foreigners, or actually confront reality. God save the Queen!