C'mon, Jack, tell us what you really think. I don't really have much to say about this, but clearly this goes beyond the bounds of "normal" political commentary.
What makes it more pathetic is CNN's apology.
“It was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offence to the Chinese people, and we would apologise to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way."
-CNN
Apparently, Cafferty was only referring to the Chinese government when he said "goons and thugs". But isn't that beside the point? Shouldn't the apology be a much more general "we're sorry for anything that was said that was at all offensive"? Imagine the outrage that would come out of America if the tables were turned.
This seems as good a time as any to reference this well thought-out (and ultimately prophetic) article by Simon Barnes in last Friday's London Times. It's the best and most introspective piece I've read so far on anti-Chinese sentiments coming out of the West.
Update: China isn't a big fan of the apology. Link here.
3 comments:
It's definitely only going to get worse as the Olympics get going, but honestly, if one didn't expect the media to be mildly to extremely xenophobic then one hadn't done enough homework on the (North) American psyche. We have enough issues domestically with our cultural misunderstandings of minorities, so to think we'd treat "Asia" appropriately is absurd (I use quotation marks because the term "Asian" seems to have become suitable for anyone with ethnic ties to territories Northeast and Southwest of India). I can only think that getting too worked up about it will do nothing but make it worse. But I don't advocate apathy either, so I suppose this is a tough spot to be in.
"Imagine the outrage that would come out of America if the tables were turned."
COME ON Geoff, the tables will never be turned. No one in America would be caught dead watching Chinese television. It's probably full of lead painted props and instead of news reporters, they just have a bunch of goons and thugs. Also I hear it causes cancer. Seriously though, would the world hate Americans if they were TOLERANT of other countries?
Haha. Ironically, nobody in China watches CNN either. Most people can't speak English, and the government's not especially keen on letting outside news in uncensored.
But imagine if a Chinese reporter said that America's run by the same family of rednecks that was running around starting wars back in the 1990s. People would go nuts.
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