Tuesday, August 12, 2008

TRAMPOLINE PANDA BEAR: In his weekly WaPo chat today, ALOTT5MA Fave and** "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" murderer Michael Wilbon was asked (ahem) about the coverage of the Games:

Philadelphia: Michael, you're a sports writer who has always been sensitive to the political and social ramifications of the athletes and events you cover. Are the print media doing a sufficient job of reminding readers of the brutally repressive Chinese regime? Is NBC sugarcoating things too much?

Michael Wilbon: If you want information and insight about serious news issues as they relate to China, read The Post and The New York Times and others responsible newspapers with reporters and columnists who are unafraid. If you want to cheer on the U.S. athletes, watch TV. It's always been this way. The networks, and that now includes ESPN, an entity whose generous checks I cash monthly, are partners with the leagues and the events. They're not going to view them at a distance. The NBA Finals on ABC, which is the way the event is billed and sold, isn't going to lead with the Tim Donaghey news the way The Washington Post or The New York Times would lead its sports section. Not going to happen. So, you know that going on and consume your information accordingly. That doesn't mean the networks don't investigate and do tough reporting...just not with those they're partnered with...
As I mentioned in the Comments last night, I was particularly disturbed by a cutesy piece by Mary Carillo on the "new China" that was all golly jeepers that's big! about the Three Gorges Dam construction, with no mention at all of the ~1.2 million people forcibly displaced or the environmental damage caused.

In other news, the WaPo's Jill Drew reports today on China's whitewashing of the Tiananmen Square massacre. "The forced amnesia is perpetuated in Chinese schools, where the lessons of the Tiananmen massacre are not taught in history class. If it is mentioned at all, students are instructed that some soldiers lost their lives putting down an unruly anti-government mob."

** We had a staff vote. I lost.

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