Well, things are falling apart for the Olympics already. China Bars Olympics Coverage From Tiananmen Square. This was a place that was going to me a major source of standups. Reporters were supposed to get freer access, I doubt that will happen. Even some Cub Scouts were forbidden to go on the field, as promised, during an exhibition baseball game.
The issue for debate is: what is the moral obligation of sportscasters and US news organizations for covering what is going on? Should they try to seek out and interview dissidents? Should they pretend that this is just a sporting event? If there is censorship, should the US based reporters cover it during the Olympics, when people are watching?
I come down on the expose them fully if they try to limit any sort of free expression myself.
If I were an American sports broadcaster, I’d like to think I would point out the repression every chance I got. At some point, the government would be forced to either imprison me (in which case the cause would get even greater exposure, and they would presumably be under pressure from all kinds of governments to pardon me), kill me (like the above, but more so), or give me free reign. Hopefully the first option.
I’d consider any American broadcaster who didn’t take advantage of that opportunity to be morally bankrupt. I’m not talking about the people who talk while the ice dancers are skating (“A gorgeous triple axel whateverthefuck, and by the way, have you noticed that China is totally Communist?”), I’m talking about Bob Costas and crew, who sit behind desks and blab on about all kinds of stuff between games, and have been known to interview local athletes, war heroes, etc. for feel-good stories. (I loved the interview with that Italian pro-Allied WWII soldier in 2006. The soldier told a story about a lion or something who came up on his property and got his shit ruined, and Bob said “That lion didn’t know who he was messing with”. Classic.)
Not that I have a high opinion of American sports broadcasters in general, anyway.
At this rate it may be boycotted. They’re in a real pickle right now. In order to keep protestors out of the picture the Chinese Government will have to crush the movement. They’ve already threatened torture. It will go from a freedom of speech issue to a freedom to breathe issue.
My thoughts exactly, ideally, U.S. journalists should investigate and report about life in China, the good and the bad, including human rights’ violations, censorship, and social control. The reality is that any American demand for honest journalism is rather sanctimonious when you consider the propaganda and censorship in the U.S. media, along with the disregard for human rights by the Bush administration. Corporate America has no problem profiting from the Chinese market. In fact, companies like Yahoo enable the Chinese government by handing over dissidents.
The media should follow the same standards and ethics in China that they follow in the U.S. We don’t want our most important trading partner to consider us hypocrites.
There is also the argument that the Olympics should not be politicized - but I’ll leave that for another poster.
While I don’t condone the Chinese government’s practices, I don’t really see the point or the moral high ground here.
US sports journalists are obliged to report on human rights issues? Well, I’ll remember that next time when I’m watching the SuperBowl and they fail to harp on any of the dozens of issues the US is embattled in. I also failed to notice a similar debate during the World Cups, US Open, Wimbleton, etc. in their hundreds of incarnations in their hundreds of host countries.
Sports journalists ought to do what they’re paid for: reporting on sports. It’s not like no one knows about China’s human rights crisis. No one is going to be watching the 2008 Olympics and suddenly cry out, “What?! The Chinese government oppresses it’s citizens? This is an outrage!”
Of course people have things to be outraged by, but the country of the past couple of years has been China and will continue to be so for a long while.
The morning news (Fuji TV, Japan) today had a report about the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece. After the basic report they played a side-by-side video of what the general news feed filmed, and what viewers in China saw. As the general feed showed the crowd listening to the representative from China giving a speech, the China feed only showed a still shot of the torch while the rep’s voice played in the background. The reason became clear after a protester ran across the scene behind the rep carrying a flag decrying China’s recent actions in Tibet.
I have a feeling the Japanese media (normally a bunch of spoonfed lapdogs) will continue being only too happy to seize on every potshot at China that presents itself in the run-up to the Olympics.
I’m pretty sure they’d just deport you. I’ve never heard of any western journalist being imprisoned or killed by the Chinese for the content of their reporting.
Olympics coverage typically covers the environment of the host country also, and there are plenty of non-sports reporters there, since the story, especially now, is much bigger than what goes on in the field or in the pool. As I mentioned, their sports coverage is already being disrupted. What happens if a protester gets on the field? Then it becomes a sports story also, doesn’t it?
If a sports event was being held in a city where there was massive protests, should that be ignored - even by the sportscasters?
Given how poorly our US broadcasters manage even the puff-piece softball reporting of past Olympics , I’d much rather them not try and be investigative journalists. Leave the real reporting to the other news agencies.
“…and after the break, Terry Bradshaw and Dick Enberg discuss the slow progress of Tibetan independence and human rights reparations, with an in-depth discussion of the subtleties of Tibetan Buddhism versus traditional Chinese Buddhism. But first, it’s Katie with this year’s Olympic warmup jacket fashions!”
Watching the 2000 Olympics coverage in the US your broadcasts (at least the ones I saw) concentrated solely on:
a) events which the US was winning,
b) events that the US was competing in but not winning, with significant coverage of the US team and in some cases zero coverage of the winning team (I cannot recall the event now, but one I watched I gained the distinct impression that the US was winning right up until it was announced they were 4th), and
c) soft focus puff pieces on US Olympic hopefuls from Hicksville, Somewhere who had overcome huge odds (and walked barefoot in the snow 10 miles to school, uphill both ways) to achieve their dream of representing the US.
