Comments on: Xinhua Falls For Satirical Borowitz Report That Bezos “Accidentally” Bought WaPo

By: Anthony Tao

Anthony Tao — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 05:49:45 +0000

Ha, you should have let the stories through.

Alas, when placed in a position of responsibility, some people feel, well, responsible. My colleague and I once spiked a pic of Carl Weathers as Kony: http://beijingcream.com/2012/04/forget-about-kony-2012-in-china-the-carl-weathers-meme-has-officially-arrived/

By: Justin Mitchell

Justin Mitchell — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 00:38:40 +0000

I beg to politely, partially disagree. The Chinese media gatekeepers are clueless when it comes to printing Western satire (or in the case of the “female execution” pics ripped from a porn site, that also showed up in Global Times and Xinhua).
A case can be made as Wank points out that they do so for pure propaganda reasons regardless of the source/truth. But as I found through several years toiling at Global Times, China Radio Intl, it’s usually just pure ignorance. They all lose some face when their stupidity is found out because they also want to have the respect and credibility of Western media…they just can’t have it both ways.

Long ago, I had the pleasure of killing two such stories at two different Chinese English news outlets – GT and Shenzhen Daily. One was called “Incest Around the World” and the other was the hackneyed tripe about the “fake” US moon landings.

It took some talking and effort, but in the end the stories were spiked. So it can be done if someone with any sense and responsibility is awake at the switch.
That is all.

By: Wank Malarky

Wank Malarky — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 19:35:04 +0000

And you think that was written for YOUR delectation? You’re naieve as always.
The piece was written for consumption for the Chinese audience as propaganda. They don’t care if it was a spoof or not and they don’t care about what you say. It appeared as a piece, and they reported it as such. The CCP doesn’t do irony.

Go to the bottom of the class in Chinese political nuances, Anthony Tao. You missed the truth behind the story as always.

By: terroir

terroir — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 10:31:31 +0000

After 5,000 years, there is still no known cure to this “kryptonite with Chinese characteristics”