Communism

Man, after reading this AP report on the retiring of a Chinese official, you'd think that the folks at the Associated Press were star struck by this communist oppressor. I mean, I've seen less adulation on a Britney Spears fan site! You wouldn't expect to see more slobbering, sycophancy from a 12-year-old waiting in line to see the latest boy band to appear. Their adulation of vice premier Miss Wu Yi ranges from calling her a "master problem solver," to saying she has "charm," and an "unusual degree of personal warmth." You'd think that the AP is ready to cast her as the new Aunt Bee in a remake of The Andy Griffith Show. Starting out with obvious marvel at Yi's indispensability for those lucky Chinese, AP seems to totally forget that she is part of an oppressive communist regime that kills people daily, oppresses all manner of religious sects, and withholds the basic freedoms from their people.

The media is very pleased to report about the United States' occupation of Iraq, and they never seem to tire of insinuating that it is both unpopular and illegal. However, they seem to be strangely shy of reporting on other occupations, which are both more long-standing and of a imperialistic nature. A case in point is the Associated Press story today on President Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled god-king of Tibet. Tibet, a historically independent kingdom, has been under a Chinese military occupation since 1951. Yet the AP chooses not to mention any of this in their report, which instead concentrates on the Chinese outrage that President Bush would meeet with the leader of an occupied state. The AP wrote in their second paragraph that,

Both Bush and members of Congress - who are presenting him with the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday - are stirring anger in China by honoring the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists. "We solemnly demand that the U.S.

On the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara's death, October 8 New York Times penned a peppy little story about how his well-to-do children feel about their father's legacy as a Communist “revolutionary icon” and the commercialization of his image.

Glaringly absent was any mention of his unpleasant history, especially the nickname he was given when he was Cuba's high executioner, The Butcher of la Cabana.

The NYT lamented that Che's image has fallen prey to the claws of capitalism and his “message” diluted. Too bad there was no description of the brutal way that “message” was delivered (emphasis mine throughout):

Communist (and FBI informant) Dalton Trumbo, hero of the Red Scare. That's how New York Times reporter Michael Cieply portrayed him in Tuesday's Arts section story "Voice From the Blacklist, Through Voices of Others."

"Sixty years after a Congressional panel grilled 10 uncooperative writers, directors and producers about their supposed Communist connections, Hollywood still quarrels over the heroes and villains of its Red Scare."

Notice how the phrase "Red Scare" comes without quotation marks, as if that liberal term is the objective view.

"The propriety of giving Elia Kazan -- one who 'named names' -- an honorary Oscar in 1999 remains a contentious subject. And only five years ago Stanley Kramer's widow bitterly battled the makers of a television documentary that depicted her late husband using the blacklist to deny his former partner Carl Foreman a producer's credit on 'High Noon.'