CNN: Scum of the cable news industry?
Seeking to fuck shit up for Taiwan?
I'll admit right off that Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) is not who I want to be Taiwan's next president, but CNN was way off base with a headline reading "Taiwan's 'scum of the nation' runs for president." Take a look at the nastiness for yourself:
The offensive phrase is a quote from China's state-owned media from way back in 2000, but the quotation marks in CNN's headline did little to take away from its declarative nature which, in the context of the terrible reporting on Taiwan, demeans the country as well.
They apparently changed the headline later. By the time I read the article, it bore the title "Lu seeks to be first Taiwan woman president." I wonder if they'll change that awkward one soon, too. (Quick! Who was the "first Taiwan man president"?)
The article also contains this obnoxious meme:
Taiwan has been ruled separately from China since the Communists won a civil war and took over the mainland in 1949. Beijing insists Taiwan must unify eventually or face a devastating war.The fact is that Taiwan has been ruled "separately from China" since the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1896, and don't you forget it.
Questions to ask yourself:
* What kind of person would immediately think of a 7-year-old "scum of the nation" quote for a headline?Pre-completion update: I'm told this story was written by Hong Kong-based AP reporter Lee Ming (ph) (李明). According to Presidential Office spokesperson David Lee (李南陽), quoted in today's Taipei Times, "the AP told him that CNN, which is an AP subscriber, had changed its original headline to make it sound more sensational" and that "the office would contact CNN to gain a clearer understanding of the situation." Please contact CNN about this and express your disapproval. [Edit: I've changed the link to the one you get when you follow "Send general comments" from their "dotcom" Feedback page.]
* Are there any similarities between Xinhua (新華) and this CNN piece?
* 1 + 1 = ?
Second pre-completion update: I'm now getting a blank page where the original article was. Not even a "404" error -- just a white cat in a snowstorm.
Requiring rectification: Taiwan, 台灣, Annette Lu, 呂秀蓮, CNN, China, 中國
Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!
Labels: Annette Lu, China, CNN, Tim Maddog, 中國, 呂秀蓮
posted Wednesday, March 07, 2007 @ 9:08 PM by Tim Maddog
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9 Comments:
I was going to leave a comment for CNN but was unable to deduce which arm of CNN I was supposed to send my comment to. Nwaewswire didn't appear to be among the choices. A chance to write my mind thwarted...
Lee Min is correct spelling. He is based in HK office of AP, but he came over to Taipei for the Lu press conference and even asked her some questions in front of everyone. TVBS has it on film. But really, yo, the AP and the Reuters always say Taiwan is renegade province that must be brought back into the family down the line, AP just calls Taiwan a "self-ruled island" now, better than mere "island" and now calls China as a "rival" rather than "mainland", so things are improving. Lu was not called INSANE by Chicom guy, she was called insane SPLITTIST, big difference. But yet, this is tempest in a teapot, everyone knows CHINA is crazy paranoid dictatorship of control freaks, so the CNN headline and the AP quotes inside story were just FUN. can't anybodu have fun anymore? Lu is just too emotional about this, and so is Taiwan media. Nobody slapped Taiwan in the face on this! Headlines always are colorful and wild. Had this gaffe never been made on CNN website, do you think this ever would have been NEWS and do you think anybody would even care about Lu Sholien? As it is, she got over 10,000 google marks from this. She should be happy. Her profile shot up. This is much ado about nuttin. But yes, that person at CNN HQ in HK who wrote the headline, the scum one, he should have his LP cut off. Sure. But hey, Lu is scum of nation as far as nation of CHINA is concerned. notice he did not call her scum of island, he meant she is scum of nation of CHINA. big difference. read between the lines. Relax, dajia!
Lee Min is correct spelling. He is based in HK office of AP, but he came over to Taipei for the Lu press conference and even asked her some questions in front of everyone. TVBS has it on film. But really, yo, the AP and the Reuters always say Taiwan is renegade province that must be brought back into the family down the line, AP just calls Taiwan a "self-ruled island" now, better than mere "island" and now calls China as a "rival" rather than "mainland", so things are improving. Lu was not called INSANE by Chicom guy, she was called insane SPLITTIST, big difference. But yet, this is tempest in a teapot, everyone knows CHINA is crazy paranoid dictatorship of control freaks, so the CNN headline and the AP quotes inside story were just FUN. can't anybodu have fun anymore? Lu is just too emotional about this, and so is Taiwan media. Nobody slapped Taiwan in the face on this! Headlines always are colorful and wild. Had this gaffe never been made on CNN website, do you think this ever would have been NEWS and do you think anybody would even care about Lu Sholien? As it is, she got over 10,000 google marks from this. She should be happy. Her profile shot up. This is much ado about nuttin. But yes, that person at CNN HQ in HK who wrote the headline, the scum one, he should have his LP cut off. Sure. But hey, Lu is scum of nation as far as nation of CHINA is concerned. notice he did not call her scum of island, he meant she is scum of nation of CHINA. big difference. read between the lines. Relax, dajia!
Crystal, I've changed the link above to take readers to the page where I submitted my own comment. I hope you and everyone reading this will add your voices to the comments there.
Tim Maddog
Anonymous, I just saw your comment. If you write to us about something you actually care about, I might put more effort into a response. In the mean time, "relax" yourself about my concerns.
Tim Maddog
So according to the officials and spokesperson in AP, Lee Min had nothing to do with the obnoxious name-calling, someone from 上級 did it. So that's the end of that? AP is just gonna sweep this under the rug by blaming it on an illusional scapegoat and not even apologize for the report? I don't care what they say about freedom of press, you just don't make such judgemental and disrespectful remark on a country's vice president, any country. How professional can the reporter or AP be when they don't even have the commonsense to avoid such biased reporting. They should at least apologize and admit that the place is run by a bunch of morons.
To anonymous:
It's fun to read your comment. What I read is that someone spit on your face, you thank him because he made your face more shinning.
Chinese said that when someone slaps on your left face, you'd better show him your right face for him to slap on so he won't get angrier. I do enjoy watching this kind of typical Chinese style show off.
Screenshot of original CNN article
I put it in an article that aims at manderin readers (so I won't crosspost here):
Michael Turton - 美聯社錯在哪裡
Correct url of the screenshot
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