• JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    LMAO

    Wasserman, the Berkeley journalism professor, says reporters may have been too willing to believe Wang because his stories neatly fit an overall narrative that is true: China does routinely target critics overseas, even though the government denies it. Wasserman also notes that – to some degree – the Chinese government is libel-proof.

    “If you get it wrong, where’s the harm?” Wasserman says some reporters may have figured. “If they didn’t do it to this guy, they probably did it to somebody else.”

    party-parenti

    • BigLenin [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      We’ve been calling Libs out so much for this, they just seem to be embracing it now. They openly admit half the shit they read is lies but they don’t care.

      Honestly what are you supposed to do at this point? I don’t think there’s an effective way to counter propaganda people KNOW is BS.

      • When it comes to media “professionals” you talk about:

        there’s no reason to expect them to study China, and retrospectively I think to some extent it was a mistake to personally have spent so much time trying to teach them. It’s instead an acknowledgment that they are eagerly wielding the accusation like a club, that they are in reality unconcerned with its truth-content, because it serves a social purpose.

        What is this social purpose? Westerners want to believe that other places are worse off, exactly how Americans and Canadians perennially flatter themselves by attacking each others’ decaying health-care systems, or how a divorcee might fantasize that their ex-lover’s blooming love-life is secretly miserable.

        Their efforts feed an ambient propaganda haze of controversy and scandal and wariness that suffocates any painful optimism (or jealousy) and ensuing sense of duty one might otherwise feel from a casual glance at {any progress of the China, the socialist world, if not the Global South}

    • AstroStelar [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      There’s also this:

      When [Chinese-Australian cartoonist] Badiucao learned he and Wang would appear in the same investigative TV program, he expressed his doubts to producers, but to no avail.

      Badiucao says NPR’s investigation helped keep the Chinese human rights movement honest.

      “It’s a relief that – basically – journalism proves itself: it has the capacity for self-correction,” Badiucao says. “I think it restores my confidence in this line of work.”