Ordinary Chinese Do Not Trust Western Media

The Chinese government invited western media to cover the Urumqi massacre committed by US sponsored Muslim World Uyghur Congress (WUC) terrorists. However, ordinary Chinese are angry at western media, and have not been reluctant to hide their dislike. ABC said its reporters were booed by Chinese people at the scene. Now, let us find out why.

Look at this picture, which appears on the front pages of almost every western media, including ABC. A Muslim Uyghur old lady confronted a squad of heavily armed Chinese police. The picture resembles an iconic image of the Tian'anmen Massacre committed by the Communists Party's People's Liberation Army against protesting students who had been conducting a hunger strike on the Tian'anmen Square. We see sharp contract between an armless old lady and the fully geared up police and armed police trucks. The image shall surely make a lasting effect to remind the world the nature of the conflict days ago, that is a peaceful protest was brutally cracked down by the military.



However, according to eye witnesses there's another side of the story. The old lady was staged by the western media. The lady was instructed by the media, including ABC, as to her position, posture, and body gesture, to the details as of the color and style of her scarf. This is evident when readers see this picture on the right (viewers and readers of ABC will never be shown this picture, of course).

ABC reported they saw scores of angry non-Muslim Han Chinese on the streets with wooden poles in hand looking for revenge. What they didn't mention was that the hundreds of bodies on the streets were all Han people, many women and little children, slain by Muslim Uyghur terrorists. Many died from one cut on throat, typical Muslim style.

When ABC reported Muslim Moms and Wives got on the streets to demand releasing of their husbands and sons, they didn't mention the hundreds of non-Muslim Han Chinese who had been murdered just a couple of days ago. Many bodies are still laying on the street of Urumqi. Urumqi is not an isolated remote village. It is a provincial capital city with over 2 million residents. Many western people work and travel there on daily basis. Not even one of them saw a Muslim killed by police or non-Muslim Han people. Many of the foreigner wrote or post on the Internet their account of the sudden nondiscriminatory ethnic massacre committed by Muslim Uyghur. While, no major western media mention that, and they don't bother to interview them. Instead, they focus their camera on the Muslim Moms and wives shouting at soldiers demanding their criminal men released. What perfect picture!

The western media had been using the same headline for days: Peaceful Protest Brutally Cracked Down. Still while the WUC was asked to provide any picture of police brutality against Uyghur protesters, they could produce none. The only picture the President of the WUC showed at a press conference on July 8th, three days after the ethnic cleansing committed by the Muslim Uyghur against non-Muslim Han Chinese, was scene of another protest in Shishou of Hubei Province. 2000 miles away from Urumqi, and one year apart. While every Chinese know the picture is fake, and some pointed out immediately. The picture still appeared on major western media, with caption: photo showing Chinese military build up in Urumqi.

American media really shouldn't laugh. First of all, it's not a good time to laugh on the death of hundreds people bluntly killed by Muslim terrorist on the streets of their home city. Secondly, terrorists do migrate and spread. After they conquer China, where should they go next?

A picture tells more than 1000 words. However, it takes two pictures to tell the truth, at least that is the case with western media, such as ABC.

The Liars Work for Washington Post

'The Post', as people in the region refers to the Washington Post, has a reputation in news reporting, (most recently) with habitual lying.

In the screen shot captured from the official website of the Washington Post, three components can be read by viewers: The article on the riots broke out in Lhasa, a picture showing police dispersing protesters with wooden sticks, and the caption of the picture: "Chinese police rounded up Tibetans in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa".

The problem is that the "police" were waring a uniform never seen in China. For a few readers who actually know the nuances in the uniform, it's more than clear which direction the Fan is trying the spin the news towards.

Perhaps it's a typo, or honest mistake made in the middle night after an exhausting long day?

Disappointedly, it turned out this is a deliberate spinning of fact executed by the Washington Post, and specifically the case reporter, Maureen Fan. When approached by concerned readers regarding the mismatching of photos and the caption, Fan replied '..the photo CLEARLY says it was taken in Nepal....'. Is that a joke?

Mareen Fan is not a stranger in news media, having joined the Washington Post in 2004. Readers have seen worse in terms of information spinning in the name of journalism, but a blunt lie with no intention of covering up is still rare. What a disgrace to her parents, to her alta mater, to women journalists, and to the human being to have a lair like Maureen Fan. The Washington Post website says Fan is covering China events in Beijing. Based on what we have seen, what we have read, and what we have heard from Fan, Washington Post's news license should have been revoked.

Where did she get her degree in mass communication? Who was her adviser? Just curious.

Netizen Arrested for Exposing Luxury Government Building on the Net

A Shangdong Tengzhou netizen was arrested after he posted a message on the Xinhua (New China) Net, a website sponsored by the central government, pictures of luxury local government buildings.

Mr. Ma of Tengzhou, Shangdong province posted a message titled, 'Have a Look at the Luxury Government Buildings of Tengzhou' at Xinhua Net on June 14, 2007. Xinhua Net was an online affiliation of the Xinhua News Agency, the official news agency of communism China. Days ago, the Central Disciplinary Committee of the CCP asked people to post luxury government buildings on the Xinhua Net, so that they could start investigating misuse of public money. Besides fulfilling the holly duty of helping the Party, contributors would be rewarded with gifts as stated by the central disciplinary committee. Two days after Mr. Ma posted the photos, the filed chief of the China Legal News Jinan (capital city of Shandong Province) station, who is a personal friend of Mr. Ma, posted on June 16th, 2007 that Mr. Ma had been arrested by local police.

If Xinhua Net hadn't deleted pictures of the luxury government buildings posted by Mr. Ma, this would have been another case of the wrestling between the central government and local officials. However, it's likely the central government was behind the arrest of Mr. Ma because the prompt tracking and arrest of an anonymous post. This was reaffirmed when those pictures were deleted by the Xinhua Net. In the Chinese government architecture, the Xinhua News Agency functions partially as the investigative arm of the top leaders. No local governments have power to constraint the functioning of Xinhua.

The Propaganda Division of the CCP Tengzhou Committee told the media that Mr. Ma was arrested on charge of criminal impersonation because he claimed to be a reporter of Legal Daily.

The young generation of the Chinese online community was shock on Mr. Ma's arrest. However, elder people who had been through the previous 'movement' cycles of the CCP still have vivid memory of the pattern of how CCP rooted out 'unreliable' citizens by inviting criticisms from the public. The Great Chairman Mao often proudly refer the technique as to smoke the snakes out of their holes.

Tengzhou was the birth place of Micius (480-390 B.C.). Mencius (372-289 B.C.) praised Tengzhou (then State of Teng) a "Good State".

Journalists on Government Payroll

Mr. Juan Manuel Cao of Channel 41 followed Cuban leader Fidel Castro to Argentina this summer and tried to score by throwing cute questions. Mr. Castro responded by calling him a “mercenary” and asking who had been paying him.

At least 10 US journalists were found on the payroll of a US propaganda agency. They receive money for writing anti-Cuban articles. Nothing new, Pentagon had hired journalists to write articles on Iraqi issues, as we all knew. We also knew that Armstrong Williams was paid to say good things on Bush's no child left behind project, which had been criticized by many educators.

One of Bush's top propaganda officers, Mr. Joe O’Connell of the International Broadcasting Bureau said there was "no ethics code" for the contracted journalists.

On the payroll there are:

Pablo Alfonso of El Nuevo Herald

Wilfredo Cancio Isla of El Nuevo Herald

Olga Connor of El Nuevo Herald

Juan Manuel Cao of Channel 41

Ninoska Perez-Castellón of Radio Mambí

Journalist Bowed Capital

The Shenzhen Middle People's Court have been facing fierce criticism for its illegal seizure of the journalists personal property at the request of Foxconn Electronics Inc., a Taiwan-based company where iPods are made. The move was considered by many legal expert as a deface of Chinese legal system as it not only violated the Chinese civil court, but also was not heard of before. The Chinese law system is by and large a continental system, where a judge must follow the code. Chinese civil code does not allow suing a reporter personally as a protection of free speech; also it does not allow seizure of personal property before the trail with specific rare exceptions in cases of personal safety, national security, etc.

This is about a case reported earlier. Foxconn was blamed by media around the world for slave labor.

Question is whether Apple is behind this, which could be a reasonable explanation on the weird move of the Shenzhen Court, as they have a record of bulging pressure from overseas capitals.

Rumor has it that the national security sector of the central government got involved, and the Foxconn has released the journalists' personal properties, but added the news agency as a co-defendant.

What puzzled people is the reaction from the journalist being sued by Foxconn. Mr. Wong Bao told news media that he still respect Mr. Guo Hongjin, the boss of Foxconn, and he would like to present his suggestions of the development of the company to Mr. Guo if giving a chance.

Not only do we know that it's hard to win against the capital, but also we know in a chilling fact that even the journalists do not want to fight the capital, even when its about their own interest.

The Seagull heard the this from an article by Guo Songmin.

A Journalist's Conjecture

A professor of business journalism at the Columbia University, Sylvia Nasar has been known for her emotional writing style, as evident in her award winning book 'A Beautiful Mind' on American mathematician John Forbes Nash. However, her recent New Yorker article on the grand prusuite of a proof of the Poincare Conjecture was a controversy on journalism ethics. The article was titled MANIFOLDDESTINY---A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it. It was published on August 28, 2006.

Probably resonant on the lonely journey of Nash, Nasar felt an obligation in proving the deserveed credit to a reclusive Russian mathemacian Perelman. Perelman drew attention around the world after he posted on Internet three notes in 2002 and 2003. The Poincare Conjecture is a foundamental math problem with broad applications. It is also one of seven millennuim problems selected by the Clay Institution with a one million dollors award each. Many mathematicians consider Parelman's notes, although incomplete, elimiated the last obsticle in the path set by Hamilton. Parelman declined the Fields Medal awarded to him by the IMU. The Fields Medal is seen as the equivalent of Nobel Prize in mathematics. Not to metioned that he lost his position at a St. Petersburg research institute not long ago.

Although people agree the importance of Parelman's notes, not everyone agree on the weight of the importance. Parelman did not give a idea on how to solve a key issue of the proof, but did not give any detailed work. As a more than 100 years old problem, other people also contributed to the proof. Among them, Yau, Hamilton and Thuson are the pomient ones.

Yau, a Fields Medal receipent, is a founder of string theory. Hamilton developped the Racci Flow, which was immediately noticed by Yau to be a long-awaited tool to solve the Poincare Conjecture. Yau encouraged Hamilton to work on the Conjecture. Yau also advaocated among his Chinese followers to work on the Conjecture with Racci Flow. Parelman's notes pointed out he actually solved the problem with a smart technique on Racci Flow. Mathematicians around the world had been excited on Parelman's notes, but few could tell whether it's correct or not. In 2003, two independent groups of top mathematicians contracted by the Clay Institute to study the correctness and completeness of Parelmans's notes. In 2004, another group of mathematicians were sponsored by the NSF to join the effort. The third group C-Z was able to present a complete proof first in 2006 with a 328 pages publications on the Asian Journal of Mathematics, of which Yau is the chief-eidtor. Yau considers C-Z's finished the last brick in the building of mansion. In science, people often say the details is the devil. Many common sense has never been pproved by serious proof, or may never be.

Nasar disagrees. In order to give all credits to Parelman, she has to remove Yau from the picture, which would be hard. In stead of confronting Yau's contribution, she lauched a smear campaign by throwing personal attacks and making up rumors. In an article presumbly about the Poincare Conjecture, Nasar threw in a lengthy story telling on personal disputes between Yau and one of his students, as well as Yau's ambitious to replace late Chern as Chinese leader in the math world.

Nasar understood negative comments from Yau's enemies did not build a good case, and that she had to go the dark force. In a move doomed to stun the world, Nasar posed herself as a Yau's fans to approach Yau's friends and collaborators seeking their opinions on Yau. Their commenets were exploited in a smear compaign against Yau in her New Yorker Article. After the article was published, her interviewees were furious to find what's in the print. Alas, too late.

Nasar devided her article into three parts, of which the thrid part was totally used on personal attackes on Yau, build on comments from Dr. San Stoock of MIT. In the interview when Nasar posed as a fans of Yau, Stoock told her that he was worried on Yau, because of his courage in fighting with corruptions. When the comments came to print in Nasar's article, it trunned to a total smear against Yau. No one explained it better than Stoock's own Statement,

Clarification

I, like several others whom Sylvia Nasar interviewed, am shocked and angered by the article which she and Gruber wrote for the New Yorker. Having seen Yau in action during his June conference on string theory, Nasar led me to believe that she was fascinated by S-T Yau and asked me my opinion about his activities. I told her that I greatly admire Yau's efforts to support young Chinese mathematicians and to break down the ossified power structure in the Chinese academic establishment. I then told her that I sometimes have doubts about his methodology. In particular, I told her that, at least to my ears, Yau weakens his case and lays himself open to his enemies by sounding too self-promoting.

As it appears in her article, she has purposefully distorted my statementand made it unforgivably misleading. Like the rest of us, Yau has his faults, but, unlike most of us, his virtues outweigh his faults. Unfortunately, Nasar used my statement to bolster her case that the opposite is true, and for this I cannot forgive her.

Michael Anderson of the SUNY Stony Brook was another victim of Nasar. Returnned from a Eurpoean trip, Anderson was furious finding his candit comments was misquoted by Nasar in her article:

Dear Yau,

I am furious, and completely shocked, at what Sylvia Nasar wrote. Her quote of me is completely wrong and baseless. There are other factual mistakes in the article, in addition to those you pointed out.

I have left her phone and email messages this evening and hope to speak to her tomorrow at the latest to clear this up. I want her to remove this statement completely from the article. It serves no purpose and contains no factual information; I view it as stupid gossip unworthy of a paper like the New Yorker. At the moment, the print version has not appeared and so it might be possible to fix this still. I spent several hours with S. Nasar on the phone talking about Perelman, Poincare, etc but it seems I was too naive （and I'm now disgusted） in believing this journalist would report factually.

I regret very much this quote falsely attributed to me and will do whatever I can to have it removed.

I will keep you informed as I know more.

Yours, Michael

What exactly have been said behind that closed doors would probably be a Rashomon. That might be a tape recorder silently rotating, but we may not know the contents for another hundred years. There could be many cheap execuses such as third party privacy, confidentiality or simply protection of her source. But what's in the article has ireversably stired the otherwise silient world of mathematicians. Questions have been bouncing around nonetheless: "Where is the integrety?"

Less than a month ago, the Reuters fired a contract photographer on a doctered photo with intensified black smoke rising from debrits in Beiruit after Isreal bombing. The one million dollor question is, do they teach Journalism Ethics at Columbia?