The Old Eighteen

China snubs CNN apology; Olympic protests hit India

As a response to the group temper tantrum that China is throwing over Jack Cafferty's disparaging-but-true remarks about the Chinese government, CNN issued a lame, half-assed apology for something that deserves no apology whatsoever, clarifying that Cafferty was referring to the Chinese government and not the people of China.  Predictably, this wasn't enough to satisfy the Chinese dictatorship, so the pouting continues unabated:

But Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference that the CNN statement lacked sincerity and instead "turned its attack on the Chinese government to try to sow division between the Chinese government and the people."

The head of the ministry's information department summoned CNN's bureau chief in Beijing on Wednesday night to deliver a near identical protest.

Seemingly lost in the midst of all this sturm und drang is the almost comic irony that many Chinese living within the country itself are protesting against stuff on CNN and other western media outlets that they haven't even been allowed to see or hear:

CNN and other foreign satellite broadcasts can be seen only in hotels, offices and housing developments open to foreigners, meaning very few Chinese would have heard Cafferty's original comments.

Censors also block many foreign news sites on the Internet, pointing to an underlying irony of the ongoing protests — that they profess outrage over foreign media reports that their government does not permit them to view.

Meanwhile, in India, the Olympic torch arrived to more protests:

Hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched through central Delhi on Thursday morning shouting "Die for Freedom" hours before the Olympic torch was due to be carried through the Indian capital.

Demonstrators lit their own torch at the spot where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are buried, and they planned to mount a parallel, peaceful torch relay through the city's streets. Delhi police had granted permission for the protest but had warned that they would extinguish any torches being carried by protesters.

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(via AMERICAblog [1,2])

Why I love Jack Cafferty

If you haven't had an opportunity to watch Jack Cafferty on CNN's "The Situation Room," you're missing out - he's one of the few bright spots on a network that has fallen far from what it once was.  Cafferty tells it like it is and minces no words, as evidenced by his recent comments about the government of China:

He was speaking about the U.S. trade deficit with China when he said, according to the transcript, "We continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we're buying from Wal-Mart."

"So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed," he continued. "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

But apparently the bloodthirsty tyrants running the Chinese government got their tender feelings hurt by what Cafferty said, and as usually happens when someone says something even mildly critical of China, they started stomping their feet, throwing a temper tantrum, and, lower lips stuck outward in full pout, demanded an apology:

China demanded an apology from CNN on Tuesday after network commentator Jack Cafferty called the country's leaders a "bunch of goons and thugs" and said its products were "junk."

[...] The comments reflect Cafferty's "ignorance and ... hostility" toward China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

"We are shocked and strongly condemn the vicious remarks by Cafferty," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. "We solemnly request CNN and Cafferty himself take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people."

Yeah, he should apologize to the Chinese government.  Right after they apologize for Tienenman Square, and Tibet, and all the other horrible things that they've been doing to the people under their authority.  And then stop doing them.  And that'll happen shortly after hell freezes.  So Cafferty should stick to his guns and tell the Chinese government to go fuck themselves.

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(via AMERICAblog)