China Esquire

I have been thinking about the role of the media in both societies. And I have long been critical of the media no matter what country you are in. Here’s why.

Within the past few months in America, we have seen China being vilified for the Tibet uprising, the Olympic Torch relay coverage being dramatized (and somewhat overblown in my view, at least, with the San Francisco portion), and now a lot of sympathy in the China quake. Now it seems that China can do no wrong: it has been transparent in its reporting, and western journalists have been singing China’s praises for the last week. It almost seems like the CNN coverage is bi-polar. Of course, it isn’t. But I know that many of my Chinese friends and colleagues were deeply offended one month ago and now fairly happy about the media coverage as of late.

Yes, this blog post is not about law and business, but about the role of the news reporting. While the Chinese might accuse the media of being anti-Chinese and yet very fair in the rest of its reporting, let me assure you that the media is going to be biased… I don’t think it is necessarily anti-Chinese, though I do think it is biased period. Even when it reports on American news. It is hard to find purely objective reporting on anything.

I was reading this little tidbit on CNN the other day about American politics. (yes, I know its not the normal purpose of this blog) And it takes a particular political leaning that has little to do with reality:

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday served a subpoena on former top Bush aide Karl Rove to compel his testimony concerning allegations that the Department of Justice had dismissed U.S. attorneys based on party affiliation.

It had authorized the subpoena earlier, but only delivered it Thursday after Rove’s attorney said he would not appear voluntarily, Chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan, said in a written statement.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Rove has failed to cooperate with our requests,” Conyers said. “Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate. Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters.”

Now what does this have to do with the law? Well, quite a bit actually. Because by law, every President is allowed to hire and fire U.S. Attorneys. 28 U.S.C. section 541(a) reads “The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.” It seems to me that it is the President’s right to hire and then subsequently can their judicial watchdogs. The folks on wikipedia justify their position by saying that the President’s power should be governed by “tradition”. But that is not what the law says. (this is a law blog, so you should expect that there is at least something law related here) Of course, CNN and other media outlets have been very selective reporting about the law. Perhaps the journalists tend to be Democrats–and frankly, I don’t doubt that.

But that’s not the point of this article. All media will be somewhat selective and biased… either for a political agenda, or for what I think is more true, an economic agenda. Reporting will be done to make money in the west. Yes, there is some truthful and transparent reporting involved… but much of the media here is also driven by money. Sell newspapers, sell ad revenue, etc. This is a product to sell. And what sells is usually not objective reporting.

It’s a little different than the Chinese media, which often has a political agenda. So which is better? Probably neither. For better or for worse, each media source, whether Chinese or American, will be trumping their own viewpoints.

The important part is to read as much as you can about any story–and get the facts. I tell this to American friends wanting to understand China. I tell this to Chinese friends wanting to understand America. Read as much as you can, and get both sides. Draw out the factual content. And then go from there. That’s how you can (hopefully) learn to read around media biases. The media has a powerful role in all cultures. And in an information driven world, it is even more powerful. And sometimes, that means we will have to do a little more homework so that we can get real news without the media biases–whether in China or America.

The proper way to undermine bias is not by being biased against that bias. The proper way to undermine bias is by knowing the facts and then drawing a reasonable conclusion. I have a feeling this post is going to ignite a lot of flames…

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