I agree!

可怕的不是进步速度慢，而是止步不前
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still

Orrin, orrin, orrin...

Ya dropped the ball on this one.

My take:
http://cupofcha.com/2008/04/16/the-meaning-of-china-and-the-press-blame-...

Oy, vey...is this true in Zhuhai??

http://shanghaiist.com/2008/04/18/net_nanny_news.php#more

I've had no trouble getting to CNN, other than the slow speed. I still stand by my initial comment. Cafferty f---ed up. You know the old adage about publicity in the entertainment biz there; "There's no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell my name right."

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

I suppose that this post is only dedicated to americans people. It would be nice sometimes for us (poor "other" expats) to get some explanations about the topics. for instance start this post by sth like : "last week on CNN Mr Cafferty said that...."
So we could know what about your guys are talking about, and maybe enter in this discussion. Otherwise, why don't simply exchange emails between each other ? :-)
Dom

L'amitié ne s'use que si l'on ne s'en sert pas

For the past 3 or 4 days, Cafferty's comments, and China's reaction to them have been all over the international media, including HKTV and CCTV. Indeed Cafferty is an American new commentator, but I fear that China's reaction to his comments is going to have an effect on ALL expats. It certainly isn't going to make our lives any easier here.

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

Cafferty obviously uses words that Americans are comfortable with and probably dont translate well. i dont agree with his comment but there is a grain of truth in what he said. He called products junk. Some are undeniably that. If they are painted with lead paint they are not usable and have to de destroyed or thrown away -hence they are junk. There is also a current report from the EU that 50% of the rejected goods in the EU come from the mainland so it is not just the US that is experiencing this problem but the rest of the world is perhaps more polite in their descriptions of it. The biggest problem I see with mainland QC is that the people doing it have no experience at using the product. I occassionally do QC acceptance on products and most of them are good to excellent but the people who make them admit they are not sure how the product is actually used. This includes simple products like a soup spoon. These products are not ingrained in to their culture so how do you expect them to do proper usage testing.
The bit he said about thugs is just telling the masses what they want to hear. One colleague of mine asked me my opinion of CNN and i answered that I hold them on the same pedestal as CCTV and he looked at me rubbed his chin and said "I know exactly what your point is".

As you (collective) may or may not know, the electronic (radio and TV) news media, especially in the US, has crossed the bridge from true journalism into entertainment. Long gone are the days of true journalists such as Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. They have made way for the “new” generation like Katie Couric, Nancy Grace, and Mr. Cafferty who have little or no journalistic credentials.

As entertainers, these personalities survive on the air by attracting the attention of a large audience. One of the best ways to do this is to occasionally make some outrageous statement that will get a lot of people’s attention. The accuracy of the statements are not important as long as they attract the required level of attention. The attention gets big ratings, and the big ratings attract big sponsors to the networks who pay their huge salaries. It is all business; and has very little to do with journalism.

I don’t think that Mr. Cafferty had the slightest clue that his words, broadcast around the world, would elicit such a reaction from Beijing, or what impact that reaction is going to have on the expats here. After all, mainland China is not his target audience. What is important, however, is that he got a lot of ink, and that will be a good negotiating point for him when his contract with CNN comes up for renewal.

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

I think that this is a little bit more than "slightly" revealing about the US news media, especially CNN.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_en_tv/cnn_reporter_charged

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

@kingstadlux:

Please write your stuff in English so I can read it and respond!

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

Have you guys watched the show Situation Room? It's a discussion or a forum format in which people interview, discuss, make comments about anything and everything. Cafferty is constantly on his soap dish, that's people watch him for and he slams on everybody not just the Chinese. Come on here, he's always cutting on our Administration, Republicans, Democrats, the Mexicans climbing the border, you name it. My point is, what I've read about the complaints from China that Cafferty is expressing hatred language toward China goverment, well he's made much more repeated comments on our own government (his own government)! He's not at the main CNN ancor desk along side with Anderson Cooper giving the daily news, he runs a talk show host on CNN, that's it.

I know. Like I said, he's only looking for ratings. It doesn't matter who he attacks or defames, as long as people watch, and he gets a good "book". He doesn't give a flip about the fallout. Unfortunately, that same practice pervades the entire international press corp.

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

Here is a perfect example of what I have been talking about. Jack Cafferty could not have done better if he tried! This ought to be worth at least 1 million on this next contract negotiation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cnn20apr20,0,2778839.story

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"I can't get no respect.............. no respect at all!"

I don't know about you guys, but I personally would rather have news agencies that are NOT government censored and that are free to make statements, make apologies and retractions whenever they feel FREE and necessary to do so.
What I don't see is: the chinese government ever apologizing for misinformtion or censorship. It's a faceless bureaucracy that's too afraid and shameless.
Western media? Yeah I'll take it any day of the week! Better than the Chinese government run media that's absolute joke here. The chinese protesting CNN? Give me a break why don't they protest their own media for censorship? That last thing they need to be worried about is being called "goons or thugs" as fas I'm concerned. Yeah I said it. (And I'll apologize for it, later maybe a retraction if deemed necessary.)

Yes, I don't want to have to be monitoring the site 24 hours a day.
This website is run as a commercial entity with the objective to help Foreigners to settle in Zhuhai.
It is not meant to be a political platform, although I do understand that people want to express their concerns with the currently tense international political situation.
So if you do talk about politics here, please do it very moderately and politely.
Moreover, even if you believe yourself as being moderate and polite, please remember that it might not be the case for everybody and what you say may take things out of your control...
In the comment above, I think you go too far and by your last sentence I know you know you have.
It's like the guy who wrote the toilet issue with a quite harsh title and started his post with" I know it sounds bad but..." If you know it's going to sound bad, then why not save my time and choose better words?

And it's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with your statements.
It's a matter that this website is my full time job, that I am very busy already as it is, that I don't have the time nor the resources to monitor it 24 hours a day... and finally that to my regret it is not a political platform.
Hope you guys can understand... it's going to be a long summer!
JJ

I'm sorry, don't want you to feel that you have to babysit us. I wasn't aware of the other issues you have recently needed to deal with before. However, this topic or thread, you have to admit started as a political topic therefore expect some political opinions. I will in the future keep my opinions to myself and leave it to the western media. Hope my apology is accepted.

Yes you are right about the topic of this thread... this is why I said:
"Moreover, even if you believe yourself as being moderate and polite, please remember that it might not be the case for everybody and what you say may take things out of your control..."
Of course your apology is accepted :)
JJ

And by all means, if you're gonna talk about the "big" topics of the last few weeks...d* 1t in c0de!

Seriously. JJ's a good guy...let's not get him "harmonized," ok?

And...@ JJ,

"Hope you guys can understand... it's going to be a long summer!"

Yep...it is. But you can't blame the well-dwelling frogs of the West for that one! ;)

井底之蛙 - Jing Di Zhi Wa