China demands redress for Dalai Lama honor (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/18/dalai.lama/index.html?iref=newssearch

Compare these.
I hope you’ll find how CNN is neutral unlike Xinhua if you have a little bit of logical thinking.
I know you Chinese guys are sadly full of bias, though.
Anyway, I’m a Japanese guy from a free country I enjoy.

“Whatever the Pro-Tibet camp says, it [western media] takes without any question. This is one comments you can find in a report on The Times: ‘demonstrators carried placards accusing China of cultural genocide in Tibet, and 154 shrouded effigies, which they said represented compatriots killed in a crackdown in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Chinese authorities claim that 22 people died in the riots that broke out a month ago’， what is wrong with this statement? It seems telling you both side of the story about how many people died during the riots, but wait a minute, why it did not say the 22 people killed were actually innocent people by those criminals? It gives you the false impression that both side disagreed on the number of dead, but they all agreed that they were kill by police during the crackdown.

No it doesn’t. It stated that Chinese authorities claimed 22 people ‘died in the riots’, not that they were “kill [sic] by police”. Moreover, it provides no information whatsoever to indicate that “Both side [sic] disagreed on the number of dead”, simply that they were talking about two different groups of deaths – one due to a ‘crackdown’, the other due to ‘the riots’.

There is nothing wrong with the statement above. Your interpretation is faulty.

There are ample and unambiguous examples of biased and erroneous reporting regarding the ongoing events related to Tibet. Your reading of this particular excerpt is as inaccurate as your generalization regarding “western media”. Some reports do reflect laziness and bias. Many don’t, including the excerpt above. I suggest that far greater care was taken to write and edit it than you took to read it.

Cheers

My comment:
You really look down on the Chinese people, don’t you.
Are you aware that it is the ordinary Americans who are so ignorant of other countries – in spite of ‘much education’, they know very little of foreign countries, foreign cultures, foreign governments, or even foreign geography! You really admire such people and look down on Chinese people? eh? How do I know the Americans are very ignorant of anything outside of America? I WORKED FOR AN AMERICAN COMPANY FOR 13 YEARS!!!!! My friend Joel, do you have such experience with them? My colleagues used to joke about the Americans. Nice folks, but doo not talk to them about anything outside their country. :):)

Next, I wish to address your punitive statement “Why? Because they don’t get to hear other sides to the story”.

I get the distinct impression that you conclude that since they do not get the other side of the story (ie., they get news from their own state-controlled media only which you might claim to be censored, and therefore, they know nothing else outside of that), they are an ignorant bunch. As a result, they make the wrong conclusions about events and politics.

Now, please! I am not a Chinese national. I do not live in China. I am an Asian who has lived in the West for 33 years. I have a Western education too. I have worked in the West all my working live. I still live in the West. I HAVE ACCESS TO WHATEVER SOURCES OF INFORMATION ANY WESTERNER HAS. Nevertheless, I reach the same conclusions as your poor ‘ignorant’ Chinese people. I think you have a superiority complex Joel!

Furthermore, I have studied Tibetan history and religion for more than 30 years. If you want to discuss and prove this, please give me a private email address to continue the discussion. I am quite versed in Tibetan affairs and I have written many articles on Tibetan affairs and Tibetan Buddhism. I have taken teachings from all the major 4 sects and sub-sects, including the Bonpo. I have reached the same conclusions as your poor ‘uneducated’ Chinese people. Am I that ignorant and uneducated too, Joel?

Joel, I do get to hear the other side other story. Plenty! It did not make any difference. Therefore, the basis of your assertion is erroneous.

Next, I wish to point out that many of your ‘ignorant’ Chinese have access to the internet. I believe you are also referring to them. Many also engaged in clandestine activities in the internet. They are not as ignorant as you think. Some may be more knowledgeable than me!

Tashi delek, Joel! (Tashi delek is the common Tibetan greeting)
Lama Dorje

You said:
a) …….. Western new sources, …….. often admit to mistakes.

I say:
I lived in the West for 33 years already. I am aware of editorial corrections. However, they are not very noticeable and certainly they are not the limelight. The frontpage and controversial news are what counts. Once these sort of news get read, it matters little whether there is a correction. The damage is already done, and more stories, rumours and gossips spin off from them. The corrections have very little value, my friend.

You said:
b) Many Chinese people do in fact take the CCP media as the truth, because it is the only readily available media source. ………. and therefore shapes how Chinese people see the outside world and their own national identity.

I say:
How you you know where I live? As I said, I lived and am still living in a Western country. I am widely read. Please do not tell me that CCP media is my only source and it shapes how I see the rest of the world. What hogwash rubbish you are saying? I do not read nor watch TV documentaries from CCP. How can you assume that people who dare to defy Western propaganda take CCP as their source and only source? It is an insult and very offensive to me. You guys just don’t get it, do you. Am I brainwashed? Brainwashed by who? CPP – which I do not even listen to? I actually listen to CNN,BBC,ABC and a host of other Western propaganda. The difference is I am able to discern and sieve through their garbage. I still have family, relatives and friends in Asia and I get news from REAL PEOPLE about what happened. I do not get from agitators, subversive elements, activists, opposition nuts, mobs and so forth who have terrible axes to grind and therefore spew out very distorted views.
Western media is terribly, teribly and terribly biased and perhaps that could be a reason why developing countries do not welcome your mob. For example, my sister and her husband attended the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia many years ago during which the supporters of Anwar Ibrahim tried to stir up a demonstration using the venue of the Commonwealth Games. The Western media hates the Priminister Dr. Mohammad Mahathir and gave such a ratbag report of him always. On that occasion, the media reported a mass popular and spontaneous uprising in the country. The TV showed a good crowd yelling. But it was due to camera trick of panning the camera shot. My sister told me that at times, she was a mere 50 meters away from the demonstrators – there were only a few dozens, may 100. I checked with friends who live in Malaysia, and they had to ask me what am I asking? Where did I get my information from? Who told me? Well they don’t even know there was any big demonstrations, much less a popular uprising. They know of small demonstrations here and there – very confined. Life was just normal in the country. My step father, who is a Westerner, believed the Western media to this very day even though we tried to tell him it is not true. This is the very big and lasting effect your false reporting has. It is not only very ofensive to us, terribly so, but it has so very negative consequences. If the governments in developing countries try to correct the false reports, the situation becomes even orse – accused of manipulating the press, no freedom of the press, lies, etc. You just can not win against the Western media who have the power and wide coverage. Hence, our frustrations!!!!

My friend, please be assured that I am not a Chinese national, I live in the West (like you) and I am not an agent of PRC or CCP, and I am not paid by them, and I have been to China only once for 2 weeks. My only contact with any Chinese official is at the Chinese embassy (to obtain a visa) and at the airport customs on landing and leaving. Hell! I have not met any member of CCP yet. Please be assured that I am not a member of any political party inside or outside of China or India.

I just wonder whether you guys still got it yet or not. I guess, those influenced by Western propaganda will never ever understand. sigh, sigh, sigh ……

What is absolutely true and false. You know that there is not such things about the media, not as in mathematics, where true is absolutely true and vice versa.

My assertion is false because, the western media did report Tibetan violence. But it is “correct” since there is no other explanation to the perception of the vast majority of the western population.

If you want absolute truth, I can correct to “the western media completely, absolutely deliberately ignored or minimized the Tibetan violence and murder on that day compared to their reports of bloody repression based solely on exiled Tibetan governement claims”.

Someone wrote here, “Regarding the Chinese media, it never claim it is objective and fair, it is the mouth of the Party, so we all know what to expect and do not put too much trust on them anyway”

So it’s OK to allow them to lie, and more importantly, leave out the facts.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd got a lot of coverage because he spoke Mandarin during a speech last week.

It was reported, but the parts where he mentioned Tibet were left out.

As I said, the people are ignorant, and until they can read comments from a wider spectrum, be they right or wrong, then they don’t really know what they are talking about.

@Toto: I can’t speak for the French public. God help me. I know many people have the wrong impression about what happened on March 14. No doubt the media made mistakes in their judgements on that day. In fact, one mistake they made was to be “balanced”, as it happens: claims (which were true) of Tibetans attacking Chinese were balanced with claims of police shooting at Tibetans (which, it would seem, were not true). There weren’t many independent sources of information, after all.
Of course, by that day the police had already repressively put down a number of protests that were peaceful with tear gas and more, but which still haven’t been reported by state media. That is why there is so much focus on March 14, not on the wider picture of repression.
One thing that is absolutely clear is that if Chinese tv had released pictures of what happened on March 14 immediately, and local journalists been allowed to report properly, the world would have had a different impression of events on that day. I wonder if that lesson has sunk home yet with the Chinese government. My guess is not.
One thing that is also clear is that March 14 is even under the most pro-PRC govt reading still a disastrous indictment of PRC govt policy. The idea that the riots prove the government right and the western media wrong in some way seems to me bizarre.
I still don’t see how you get from the position where you say that “actually”, I am right, to the point where you decide to repeat the assertion you make which is, as you agree, not only “not absolutely true” but in fact absolutely false.