CCTV fire suspiciously absent from Chinese news

Photo by fuzheado

It's the morning after, and people in Beijing are reporting that last night's burning building, the TVCC Center right across from the main oddly-angled CCTV headquarters, has been put out. By people, we mean the twitterati, because most media organizations here aren't covering it (yet) at all.

According to Chinasmack, this notice went out to news websites, BBS and blogs. It's telling moderators to stop reporting on the CCTV fire, including posting no more pictures, videos and only using the officially sponsored Xinhua report.

At Netease, the comments have been "harmonized." Though there were 2000 plus comments last night, this morning it's been reduced to around 9.

We suppose the bad omen of having something that important to China's image to the world burn to a husk on 元宵夜 (The Lantern Festival) wasn't lost on the CCP. But is trying to sweep it all under a rug really the best solution? It's a building! Who has a rug that big?