Little-Acorn
01-22-2009, 04:25 PM
My wife, who is Chinese, told me something I found funny yesterday.
Since she is from the Oulde Sod (Chinese version, Shanxxi) and her mother also lives with us who speaks no English, we have a satellite dish that picks up Chinese TV from several satellites over the Pacific. It seems that quite a bit of attention is being paid over there, to recent goings-on over here, especially regarding our new President.
Since Obama's inauguration, she tells me that Chinese reporting has been mixed: Many stations over there have been doing "man in the street" interviews, and then following up with their own editorials and opinions. Some praise Obama, but my wife tells me that most fall somewhere between "Wait and see", and frank disapproval of his proposed agenda, what they consider as unfounded American adulation, etc. Opinions seem to cover the entire spectrum, and praise is not in the majority.
Yet on regular American TV (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN etc.), their reporters who talk to foreigners in their various countries, can only seem to find reactions ranging from happy to delirious with joy, that Obama is our President. According to mainstream American media, people in foreign countries are uniform in their happiness over Obama's inauguration.
Who's right?
I, for one, am glad that our razor-sharp American media is doing its job, ferreting out every last opinion and presenting to us an accurate cross-section of what people REALLY think.
Since she is from the Oulde Sod (Chinese version, Shanxxi) and her mother also lives with us who speaks no English, we have a satellite dish that picks up Chinese TV from several satellites over the Pacific. It seems that quite a bit of attention is being paid over there, to recent goings-on over here, especially regarding our new President.
Since Obama's inauguration, she tells me that Chinese reporting has been mixed: Many stations over there have been doing "man in the street" interviews, and then following up with their own editorials and opinions. Some praise Obama, but my wife tells me that most fall somewhere between "Wait and see", and frank disapproval of his proposed agenda, what they consider as unfounded American adulation, etc. Opinions seem to cover the entire spectrum, and praise is not in the majority.
Yet on regular American TV (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN etc.), their reporters who talk to foreigners in their various countries, can only seem to find reactions ranging from happy to delirious with joy, that Obama is our President. According to mainstream American media, people in foreign countries are uniform in their happiness over Obama's inauguration.
Who's right?
I, for one, am glad that our razor-sharp American media is doing its job, ferreting out every last opinion and presenting to us an accurate cross-section of what people REALLY think.