Beijings Propaganda Crisis? Another NY Times op-ed by a Chinese commentator this time by Murong Xuecun (Hao Qun) a well-known PRC novelist and essayist. Guess what? Another critic! Not to be critical of him for being a critic, just to let the casual American reader know that he is an award-winning author not only abroad but in China as well, having received the 2010 Peoples Literature Prize (Chinese: 人民文学奖) for the his work In the Absence of a Remedy(Chinese: 中国，少了一味药), a first-hand account of his personal experiences with a pyramid scheme network that lasted twenty-three days. He also has an on-line following of over one million. Now it is also true that on occasion his blogs are blocked, but his recognition and ability to publish in China indicates that there are forces within the CCP that favor and protect him. That is the way things are in China. At least people are taken seriously! Better to be censored than ignored! Whether or not the Chinese censors release it or not, by censoring someone it makes what they say more sought after than not. Here in the US the corporate media simply marginalizes critics so that their audience remains small and inconsequential (progressive.org/chris_hedges_interview.html). In this essay Murong discusses the loss of credibility suffered by the establishment government sponsored media in the PRC. Well, welcome to the modern world. How ironic to be published as an op-ed in the NY Times, as the US media is also held in low esteem by the American public. As a 2013 Gallup poll illustrates the mainstream (aka corporate) media is one of the lest trusted institutions in the US with a whopping 77% of Americans distrusting mainstream media television and newspapers (storyleak/gallup-poll-virtually-no-one-trusts-the-mainstream-media/). So China is not alone. Welcome to the 21st century!
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:35:19 +0000
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