Chinese TV Censors Obama
Those who watched President Obama's inaugural speech in China missed a few sentences the Chinese government didn't want people to hear. By talking about the defeat of communism (albeit not in China) and regimes that try to stifle dissent, Obama strayed into forbidden territory and the censors’ knees jerked.
So now the Chinese censors join Chief Justice John Roberts as spoilers of a perfect Day One for Obama.
From the New York Times: "BEIJING — President Obama’s 18-minute Inaugural Address on Tuesday was generally lauded by Americans for its candor and conviction. But the Chinese Communist Party apparently thought the new American president’s gilded words were a little too direct.
China Central Television, or CCTV, the main state-run network, broadcast the address live until the moment Mr. Obama mentioned “communism” in a line about the defeat of ideologies considered anathema to Americans. After the translator said “communism” in Chinese, the audio faded out even as Mr. Obama’s lips continued to move.
......The offending line in the president’s speech was this: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.” [..]
One has to wonder how effective this type of censorship is, because when people know that they're missing information, it's already knowledge. Then they can try to learn from another source.
Yet, something like this helps me to understand that the freedoms we enjoy in the United States are not a natural state of affairs, that our "basic" freedoms are a remarkable cultural achievement - fought for long before I was born - and we must not take them for granted, we must protect them.
Which brings me around to what the GWBush administration did to our Constitution. We have been losing freedom in countless baby steps.
Just ask the code pink and anti-war groups about US censorship, they had to use "free speech zones" during the Bush years...little cages, or fenced off areas, set far away from political rallies. Did you hear what they had to say?
Do you remember a couple who were arrested at a Bush rally because they wore anti-Bush/anti-war T-shirts? The government eventually reimbursed them for the fines they had to pay?
Just 5 corporations own all the television media throughout this country. Think about that. News today is mostly just people sitting around giving opinions and promoting talking points from their bosses above.
Thank goodness for the Internet. Obama would not have been elected otherwise.
BTW--I hate it that we are doing business with China in the first place. They poison toys, toothpaste, dogfood, baby formula...do we have any principles left at all, or is it all about money, Walmart prices and cheap plastic crap?
