American Band Releases Album Venomously Attacking China...

[rogerluli]

Just a bit from a journalist's interesting blog entry...

 

http://joycelau1.spaces.live.com/blog/cns&...!1601.entry

 

 

Doing this job, everyone gets a little numb to the constant complaining from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Earlier this week, the hissy fit du jour was China's barring of the new Guns N' Roses album, "Chinese Democracy".

In the rest of the world, this "news" is in the entertainment column, it's so silly.

In our "People" gossip column (which is oddly not posted online), we quote a great headline from The Global Times (I presume the twice-weekly publication associated with People's Daily). It says "American Band Releases Album Venomously Attacking China." It also said the album was part of "a plot" to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."

HAHahahahaha. Oh dear God. The only thing Axl Rose wants to control is the aging rocker's lagging career.

Of course, it's not a Chinese conspiracy without a token comment from Qin Gang, though this is milder than most. ¡®¡®As far as I know, many people don¡¯t like this kind of music,¡¯¡¯ Qin told a news briefing. ¡®¡®It¡¯s too noisy and clamorous.¡¯¡¯

Good thing that, in these tough times, the Chinese Foreign Ministry is busy doubling as music critics.

I mean, I don't care WHAT Chinese bloggers or private magazines or critics say about Guns N Roses. I don't care if not a single Chinese person goes out to buy the album. (I won't.) But a Foreign Ministry briefing? It's ridiculous.

******

One of the rationales for "protecting" the Chinese people from "disturbing" news (personally, I find dreadlocks on middle-aged white guys disturbing) is to "preserve social stability".

You know what's way more disturbing to social stability than an rock album? Our report the same day that ONE THIRD of the water in the Yellow River is too polluted to use -- not just too polluted for drinking, too polluted for watering crops.

Sitting in this seat, it's obvious that EVERYTHING in the world -- from Iraq to Afghanistan to Congo -- is more disturbing than one crap rock album that probably would never had any publicity if China didn't call attention to it in the first place. (As Madonna well learned from her constant bickering with the Vatican, bad news = better sales).

*****

At a media conference at the London School of Economics a few months ago, a Chinese woman accused me (representative of the entire "Western media") of not taking into account "social stability" in reporting on Tibet. Basically, she said I was irresponsible for printing things that might upset Chinese people.

I responded that, broadly, "Western media" could not take into account the feelings of all the citizens of every country before printing articles, nor were newspapers responsible for what people felt, or did, after they read bad news. Good, bad and ugly -- if it happens, it goes out as accurately and fairly as we can manage it.

When I said we didn't take "social stability" into account, I was refering to not bending to self-censoring bad news that the Communist Party might find "destabilizing." I was not inferring any lack of personal sympathy or sense of responsibility over those we cover.

I'd figure that these so called "media experts" would understand this basic distinction between professional news judgment and private emotion and ethics. It's something news journalists deal with every day.

I over-estimated the egg-heads.

Another Chinese woman shot back at me, with some wishy-wash view that journalism should "not upset people, but help governments help the world" -- an argument that sounds pretty, but blurs that important line between journalistic objectivity, and simple-minded well-meaningness. The egg-heads didn't see through the thinly veiled excuse for censoring news the Party doesn't like. They actually applauded the girl.

 

Then some politically correct academic types (mostly young Brits) jumped on me, accusing Western media (i.e. "me") of "not caring."

Boy, these were the dumbest "smart" people I've ever met. Obviously, printing negative news with the knowledge that it might upset some people is different than being personally cold-hearted. That's like calling the UN a big bunch of meanies for always making Africans feel bad about their famines.

The funny thing is that these academics generally assumed that I -- as a sort of guinea pig / foreign visitor from outside academia -- was an idiot. ("Wow. You actually theorized in your paper presentation. We didn't think non-academics did that!")

 

Honestly, it didn't bother me. We hurl insults at each other all the time in the newsroom. ("YOU made the stupid editing error!") But the careless accusation that I didn't care? That stung.

******

Right now, I'm watching the India story develop. We have practical considerations, like whether we can get extra pages into tomorrow's paper for all our coverage, where our foreign correspondents are, how quickly we can get them to the scene and how we can ensure that they won't be blown up. We see 101 killed, hotels on fire, people from all over the world held hostage.

Despite what academics believe, we do make ethical decision -- and quickly. Today I was choosing photos. How gory is too gory? Is showing a corpse disrespectful to the family? Apple Daily says no, the IHT says yes.

 

Trust me. Despite any flaws in the "Western media" I care. I care alot. Sitting here, day after day, night after night, eating sandwiches over my keyboard at midnight while flipping through images of Iraq car bombings, calling people on the ground at riots and fires, looking at gruesome bloody photos every day, I care more than most of my friends doing "normal" office jobs.

It is because we care that we disseminate so much bad news that angers governments.

Trust me. If I didn't care, I'd be an academic "media expert" getting home at 6pm, without the day's news haunting my dreams.

*****

By the way, my ire is aimed at snooty, clueless "media studies" academics, not at Chinese journalists. If you want to see people who care, talk to any of the many brave reporters who covered the Sichuan quake.

[griz326]

Just a bit from a journalist's interesting blog entry...

 

I thought it rather dull; you must be easily entertained.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2008 by griz326 (see edit history)

[Sebastian]

Why would a PRC person BUY this album? They can easily download it for free off the guns n roses myspace 'page'.

[rogerluli]

Just a bit from a journalist's interesting blog entry...

 

you must be easily entertained.

 

 

 

I've stayed here for nearly 4 years now...I'd say you're absolutely correct...

[TootTaLu]

Why would a PRC person BUY this album? They can easily download it for free off the guns n roses myspace 'page'.

 

The Guns and Roses album "Lose Your Illusion" can be bought everywhere in China,and the song "November Rain" from that album is quite popular today in China.

 

I have seen many different Guns and Roses CDs for sale in China,but they ALL have the same album inside "Use Your Illusion".