Bird’s Nest Soup
The Beijing Olympics May Be News, But to NBC, They’re $900 Million—What Will the New York Media Do If Tiananmen Trumps the Triathlon? Sudden New Rules: Application by Fax for Permission to Interview
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Off the Record
At lunchtime on July 29, the New York Times masthead invited a group of reporters and editors up to a conference room in the paper’s executive hall on the 16th floor to eat roast beef and turkey sandwiches and talk about the paper’s massive investment in the Olympic Games.
How, they wanted to know, could The Times best use the 32 credentialed reporters and editors that would cover the Olympics in China?
George Vecsey, the paper’s longtime sports columnist, answered by not talking about sports at all.
He told the group the real story in Beijing over the coming three weeks was not about athletes, but about China, its geopolitical aspirations and how they were staked on the games.
Jill Abramson, the paper’s managing editor, told him he was “exactly right.”
“If I had any fear—and I really don’t with the totality of the coverage—it is we would miss the big story,” Ms. Abramson said afterward in a phone interview.
At another meeting in Beverly Hills two weeks earlier, Dick Ebersol, the chair of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, was addressing a group of television critics to brief them on NBC’s massive Olympics presence.
“Our primary aim is, as the sole rights holder in the United States, we’re the only way that you can see the major events of the Games,” he told a reporter who asked whether they planned to cover some of the complex political, social and environmental issues surrounding the Games. “So we’re not going to cavalierly blow out events to show—blow out sporting events to show news, but if it’s really news, we’re going to cover it.”
Unlike at The Times, an important division is made here: “Our” job in sports is sports; “their” job in news is news. So who’s got the credentials?
“In the major venues, we have our own cameras. So if something develops during the opening ceremony, we have our own cameras, and we also have both news and sports people ready to comment on that.”
But for news: “They’re sending the all-stars,” he said. Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, the Today crew, Richard Engel—even a Weather Channel guy! And so, the Olympics are a sports event; and China is a news story. End of story.
OF COURSE, at the time of each of these meetings, both Ms. Abramson and Mr. Ebersol already had a significant contingent of reporters on the ground in China. And before the games have even begun, the relationship between China and the Western press has become a story.
China’s short-tempered and nationalistic online community sparked death threats this past spring against outlets whose coverage of the Lhasa riots was deemed slanted toward the Tibetans. CNN doubled its blacklist status when commentator Jack Cafferty called the Chinese “thugs and goons”—meaning the regime, he said afterward, too late to mollify the public.
Craig Simons, the Asia bureau chief for Cox Newspapers, said that a cab driver this month had asked him if he worked for CNN. Mr. Simons said he did not. The cabbie declared that he would have refused to carry him if he had. “We were on Second Ring Road, in heavy traffic, and he said he’d pull over right there and drop me on the shoulder,” Mr. Simons wrote in an e-mail.
Under these conditions, status and etiquette begin to get slippery.
When President Hu Jintao held a press conference with selected foreign journalists on Aug. 1, it was not clear whether getting an invitation to attend had been a mark of honor or disrepute. The New York Times, one of the non-invited papers, noted that in the state press, “a large photo showed a smiling Mr. Hu shaking hands with foreign journalists, who had been asked to form a receiving line.”
Unwritten: “... and who had complied.”
This is a particular problem for the rights holders. The ethical questions about working with the Chinese are complicated by a philosophical dimension: China is repressive toward journalists, and it is open-handed toward commerce. So which proposition is the truth about freedom in China? And which side are you on?
If journalism is the primary good, the Chinese have a lot to answer for. The Olympic promises of greater access are easily breached. In July, police stepped in to stop a live broadcast from the Great Wall on Germany’s ZDF TV network, ZDF’s East Asia correspondent, Johannes Hano, said. Mr. Hano’s crew had spent months requesting and receiving the necessary permissions, he said. But in the middle of an interview with David Spindler—the Great Wall expert profiled by Peter Hessler in the New Yorker—German morning-show audiences saw police stick their hands over the camera lens.
“They told us, in the U.S. there’s no Great Wall, so there couldn’t be a U.S. Great Wall expert,” Mr. Hano said.
After a frantic telephone appeal to the Foreign Ministry, the Germans were allowed to do the rest of their live segments for the morning program. “We just wanted to show how beautiful China could be,” Mr. Hano said. Next Page >
After exepriencing China, I cannot understand how the vast majority of journalists can continue to align themselves with the philosophy of the left and the Democratic Party.
The impudence! How dare you call Glorious Leaders "goons and thugs" - you will be jailed, tried, and then shot!
I'm not going to watch.
I won't support a repressive regime.
Time to tell GE we are not for sale.
in approximately 1232 days a solar mass ejection and coronal hole will open up on the sun broadcasting a strong flow of solar charges particles toward the earth. 19 days later that proton storm will reach the earth. china will turn into the storm in the morning and it will lay waste to the bone marrow in all their human population and animal life. We Anunnaki are looking forward to it. China a scourge, an over producing virus that threatens all life on earth employing the worst part of western expansionism and corporate fascism operating a global kleptocracy - rule by theives, but the sun will bake them out of existence.
politics and diplomacy are wasted on a government that uses our weaknesses and greed to exploit us.
good riddance
The first mistake was awarding China the Olympics in the first place. Unfortunatley, political correctness had to be served so China had to be given a chance. Lets forget the massive pollution problems and wonderful human rights record, the only thing that mattered was not rocking the boat.
The second mistake being made is that NBC actually thinks most of us will watch TAPED events instead of just going to the net and checking the results online.
Finally, we have to decide if watching 10 minutes of actual competition wrapped in 25 minutes of commercials and 25 minutes of human interest stories per hour is worth it. Americans love to watch the actual event, ALL OF IT.
The reality is NBC wants to make this a soap opera, not a sporting event. Watching 15% of a US basketball game is of no interest to me.
The first mistake was awarding China the Olympics in the first place. Unfortunatley, political correctness had to be served so China had to be given a chance. Lets forget the massive pollution problems and wonderful human rights record, the only thing that mattered was not rocking the boat.
The second mistake being made is that NBC actually thinks most of us will watch TAPED events instead of just going to the net and checking the results online.
Finally, we have to decide if watching 10 minutes of actual competition wrapped in 25 minutes of commercials and 25 minutes of human interest stories per hour is worth it. Americans love to watch the actual event, ALL OF IT.
The reality is NBC wants to make this a soap opera, not a sporting event. Watching 15% of a US basketball game is of no interest to me.
jailed, tried, and then shot!
^ and your family will be charged for the bullet.
The Chinese remain far to insular and self-absorbed to host an international event. Holding the Olympics there was a mistake.Lets not repeat it in the future when other international venues are being considered.
China in any language is scary........why would anybody go there for games or anything......!!!
I was there in 1985 they wanted my husband at the time to build a factory there .....from Utica, NY. wrapping computer heads.......that was so awful and scary they even took our passports and told us we couldn't leave until we negotiated their way......yes to God this is true.....my husband at lunch break found our passports in their desk we grabbed them and left right away......so I speak from first hand knowledge.
Lesson learned.......they do not think like free people and they are a cruel people.......THEY ARE........look at there human rights record..........
I will not watch the horror......no way.....this hasn't even started yet and look at the problems......you mark my words the worst is yet to come..........
Kathleen Armand
USA
The Chinese cab driver refused to carry the CNN reporters because all they wanted to do was to keep going to the left.
It would have been so great, maybe even historic, if a journalist had lined up, then not extended his hand. But courage is not something today's journos are known for.
I will not be watching the games....
Can't believe the IOC awarded the games to such a country.
If I were a cabbie, I'd take the CNN reporters to a bridge over a cliff and.....well, you can guess the rest.
China has embraced Capitalism! Give them a chance, with cell phones, portable computers, prosperity free or free-er speech will come in time. remember the west "freed" russian and through them to the wolves, only oil-money saved them from gangster rule.
CNN reporters are not the only ones having a problem getting a cab. Any burka-wearing reporter is getting stiffed even worse. Do small, terror sponsoring states have journalistic voice at the games?? Some are feeling quite the scourge of Chinese rule:
http://www.socoolaz.com/article.cfm?articleID=30230
i live in los angeles, and when that happens in 2012, we are going to all burn up here too....so the end is near I guess....if the sun is punishing china, are we being punished too? Plus dont forget what the Mayans said, or didn't say perhaps. And then we have iran, and pyongyang, and lets not forget, the anti-christ running for the White House...
Now if this is a liberal paper, you will not see this, but if this a fair and independent paper, you will, so i guess all these writings are all up to the opinion of one person...
what do you call that?.....fascism? , totalitarianism, communism, socialism, marxism, corporate-ism.......liberalism.......terrorism? or ALL of the above.
I would never vote for an inexperinced young lad from illinois..
!.) because i wont vote democrat
2.) he is a flip flopper. " NO" drilling here one week--"YES" drilling here the next week"
3.) if he really thinks that america can be DONE, using oil, and oil products in 10 years.... then i want what he is smoking..... because that is absolute fantasy!
Now lets see if this paper is smart?.....or is liberal.?
It is a shame that President Bush is attending the opening ceremonies, as if communist China is just another country lead by a different political ideology.
The communists shut down a 100 factories. The communists idle 3.3 million citizens cars. The communists fire Lord knows what into the air to fix the symptom of their non-existant concern for the environment. US olympic cyclists are forced to apologize for showing up at the airport with smog masks on. All this is done to mask the fact that when government is given absolute control, humanity is least of their concerns.
Yet, foolishly, many Americans will vote for the marxist B. Hussein Obama because he promises turn over control of healthcare to government bureaucrats and tax the rich to fund an ever reaching government.
Sadly, many Americans will vote for the fascist McCain thinking that he is a better alternative to the marxist. Consider that Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, was McCain's foreign policy advisor in 2000 is now Obama's foreign policy advisor.
McCain supports fascist policies like carbon emission "Cap and Trade" which is really Kyoto lite. McCain also supports importing cheap labor as a devoted corporatist lackey.
Perhaps, this is why President Bush sees nothing wrong with endorsing communist China with his presence during the open ceremonies - also a fascist, he is more in line with them than US.
If you really believe China is so different than America, perhaps the US should boycott the games.
In America, the president can designate anyone an "enemy combatant", on a whim, and have them shipped off to some gulag. (It has happened several times)
America has detained thousands, almost a thousand in GITMO, where hundreds were released when the US discovered many were erroneously arrested, simply taking years out of their lives, not to mention torturing them, a sure-fire way to make more terrorists.
China arrests protesters in disputed territory, Tibet.
US arrests protesters in disputed territory, Iraq.
I don't see much difference.
Hey, lets send Obama there to give a stirring speech....... maybe they would keep him......but no cab rides for him!!!!!!!
Honest to God, if the Pro-Fox, anti-Obama posts here are serious and there actually are Americans that delusional and hateful, then the GOP truly has done an excellent job in dumbing down the people and we are truly finished as a nation!
If you read news and blogs from China, the Indian sub continent, the ME and the writers from those countires on the BBC you will see a pattern of severe criticism and hatred of the US and its policies, along with indignation and scorn that anyone or any government could criticize their country.
'Political' protesters are quite a different specie than those who wish to do harm to the U.S. and its citizens. There's a BIG difference dumba**!!!
For many this Olympics will be the 1st exposure to what our country is slowly evolving toward. It sure is refreshing to see that not everyone in this world is concerned about the "status" afforded the media nearly everywhere else in the world.
Your thinking is wrong. China is a conservative state. The excesses of an economy centralized around a political party continue. We in America run a risk of allowing our economy to continue to be centralized around oil and around the party that supports them. Also, Communists don't allow trade unions. This is central to our risk of having our economic distribution centralized around large "big box" stores like wal-mart. Would Sam Walton really have continued to undo the trade unions in America if he would have known it would cause the Communist party to be the largest political party represented at the stock holders meeting? I don't really know.
Our risk of a centralized economy does not come from the left, or even the extreme radical left. The main success of Rupert Murdoch and newscorp (owner of FOX news in america and china) is to downplay the right wing enablers of the communist takeover of our commerce.
Sorry that all of us on the left, on the right, and in the center kowtowed to China in recent years. It's for-profit People's Liberation Army exports billions of dollars of cheap plastic commodities here, and all we got was a lousy fascist 1936-style Olympics. Actually, in 1936 there was probably less media control and surveillance. I'll tune out, thank you very much, and instead invite a Tibetan friend here to dinner. I am sure his family over there is suffering terribly. (As if anyone in this vast country even cares.)
If you dont really see a difference i suggest you goto NYC or Boston and start get on your soapbox and start ranting about how horrid and evil the us government is. Then goto Bejing and rant about the Chinese government, I'm sure you will notice a difference then, let us know how it turns out clueless one.
No, you will be shot,... then tried..
How important is the 2008 Olympics, really? Thanks for asking, New York Times! From my post here in Chengdu China, here's another question, addressed to Chinese citizens, that your reporters might ask: which event has served to pull the people of China together more, the Olympics or Sichuan's May 12th 8.0 earthquake? The answers will point not only at the current situation, but also to China's profound sociopolitical evolution.
This country appears to be moving inexorably towards a more democratic system. Elections to be held in the next several years in Shenzhen that allow for more candidates than there are positions will be landmark events on the path towards freedom of choice in China. But it is the common Chinese citizen's changing sense of national identity--as opposed to regional linguistic, ethnic and/or economic separatism--that will come to be seen as a bellweather event of our time.
If you dont really see a difference i suggest you goto NYC or Boston and start get on your soapbox and start ranting about how horrid and evil the us government is. Then goto Bejing and rant about the Chinese government, I'm sure you will notice a difference then, let us know how it turns out clueless one.
Don Kataro.......get real.........do some homework fool.......Just start reading anything about Obama and then you might get informed......you and people like you are dumbing down America.....
And to answer you question........My Father was Killed in Action WW11, Husband Killed in Action Viet Nam........Son injured Gulf War.......you have to go a long way to say I don't love my country.....and thank God there a millions just like me........suffer you fool suffer....McCain all the way.
BOSTON, USA