The life of a conspiracy theorist must be a depressing one. When I read the story about the fabrication of the cardboard bun report, I felt ashamed to be standing at the peak of the slippery slope. Scepticism landed a jab to the ribs and I immediately doubted the truth of the police report that detailed the Beijing television’s journalist’s confession. After mulling it over, I frogmarched my opinion away from the dark side. I didn’t want to start doubting everything the Chinese government said. It seemed excessive to cover up one case of dodgy baozi in the whole of Beijing. A blatant lie would also open up the possibility of someone in the know leaking information that there had been a cover-up. Fake news reports are quite common - the local news desk in my department says it has to sift through numerous suspicious-looking stories every week. And Imagethief’s post also served as a sharp thwack to the conspiratorial cheek.
My confidence began to waver when one of the reporters said her 17-year-old son still refused to eat baozi because he was sure the government was lying. Now that’s respect for your mother’s line of work. Then my colleague pointed out that the explanation given in the Beijing television journalist’s confession - as reported by Xinhua - neglected to address the fact that in the video footage the police arrived on the scene to arrest the so-called cardboard baozi makers. Did the reporter trick the migrant workers into making the buns in order for them to be arrested? Or did he dress up his friends in police uniform? I can’t find an explanation for this in English - maybe I am missing something in Chinese. And then I read this at ESWN which also has all the right links. Now I feel like Indecisive Dave from the Fast Show.
Anyway, I only brought this up so I could be cynical about the statement the All-China Journalists’ Association (ACJA) released following news that the cardboard bun expose was a hoax. What is particularly amusing about this stream of righteousness is that the chairman of the ACJA is none other than Tian Congming, the president of Xinhua News Agency. The full Xinhua report on this statement is here but these are some of my favourite bits:
During the same interview, Li Cunhou, a member of the association’s secretariat, outlined the key reasons for the existence of fabricated news in China despite repeated disciplinary actions.
“The quality of journalism professionals varies across the country,” Li admitted. “Some reporters can produce news straight out of their imagination or by making several phone calls at home and surfing on the Internet.
Well I am sorry but how else would some Xinhua reporters based in the provincial bureaus around the country get enough news stories to fill their quota? It is common practice to surf local news websites, copy some titillating nugget and upload it to the central department. I have seen some of my colleagues rightly reject stories by regional journalists that are based on one comment from an Internet forum.
“Many of today’s journalists lack professional training and, with the fast development of the media industry, some institutions are lax in the way they recruit staff,” Li added.
Most of the new journalists - Xinhua only recruits university graduates in my department at least - are very talented individuals. But often they have had no news-writing experience before arriving on their first day, with most majoring in English (obviously a prerequisite for the job), and they find themselves writing news stories which need to be quoted by intenational media. The person who is in charge of giving journalism lectures is highly competent but unfortunately does not have enough time. Last year, the graduates had a two or three-week training course shortly after their arrival. The foreign polishers offered to give lectures on news writing but they would have been out of keeping with the emphasis on political and ideological education. Obviously I am only referring to my department but there is little reason to believe it is different anywhere else in the organisation.
However, “Some reporters just fabricated news under the guise of supervision,” Li said. “They did this either to seek petty profits for their institution or for themselves.”
I am not saying Xinhua reporters fabricate new stories. But many provincial reporters just copy local media and don’t quote the source. An extra story written in this way gains extra points for both individual and departmental quotas.
”The content of news is no different from historical fact,” Zhou cited Cai Yuanpei, one of China’s most influential scholars in the early 20th century, as saying, stressing the importance of the authenticity of news.
I think I’ll stop there.
Actually, no I won’t. Because I have just noticed a journalistic triumph for Xinhua News Agency. In a report released on Friday night, it carried a series of quotes accusing the government of lying. Government mouthpiece? Pah! Here are the opening paragraphs:
BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) — Relief, disbelief and confusion were evident on the streets of Beijing after the widely aired TV news report about dumpling makers using cardboard as an ingredient was exposed as a hoax.
Chen Huiqin, a retired middle school teacher from Shanghai, said the hoax was beyond belief.
“I guess government departments must be hoping to reduce the negative impact on the public by declaring the TV news report a hoax,” she said.
A cab driver, who asked to be identified only by his surname Liu, agreed, saying he could not believe the investigative TV news report aired by Beijing TV on July 8 was a fabrication.
“It’s not just me, most of my customers didn’t believe it was a hoax either,” said Liu. “But to avoid eating cardboard dumplings, I only eat meat dumplings at established restaurants.”
An Internet user from east China’s Zhejiang Province, wrote in a posting on Sina.com, “It cannot be a hoax, but calling it a fabricated report must be intended to serve the purpose of a harmonious society.”
A woman living in an apartment near Panjiayuan, southeastern Beijing, who gave her surname as Chen, said she was totally confused about the “cardboard dumplings” reports.
“It was awful to watch the pictures — soaking cardboard in water with caustic soda, chefs chopping the soaked cardboard, the oven used for stewing the cardboard — but those pictures seemed so real,” said the middle-aged woman. “It doesn’t matter if it was a lie, I’m going to avoid all filled dumplings.”
michael | 21-Jul-07 at 6:06 pm | Permalink
The reporters at China Daily certainly fabricated parts of their stories, usually out of laziness or due to them lacking the confidence/skills to go out and gather original material. Vox pops, for example, were invariably made up. How many times did I edit articles which quoted foreigners praising China’s “delicious cuisine” and expressing admiration for China’s deep culture.
Dave | 21-Jul-07 at 10:26 pm | Permalink
And it’s not just the Chinese media who knowingly pull the wool over their readership’s unwitting eyes. If I might note that on the UK’s foremost horse-racing service the tips on the 15th June 2005 from Southwell were not painstakingly pored over by Stan Steer, but by a jumped up civil servant with precious little knowledge of the geegees! And the letter published the following week enquiring as to where one could find a good leucipottomist nowadays, was, ladies and gentleman, little more than a ruse. And as if this wasn’t enough (and those of a weak disposition please look away now) Dave Crow does not exist - Pure fiction!
The Great British Public has been well and truly hoodwinked, and now the cat is out of the bag may I be the first to call for a wide-reaching inquiry into the dishonest and lazy practices of Teletext Journalists.
Chris O'Brien | 21-Jul-07 at 11:29 pm | Permalink
I always thought those student types in the Forbidden City were trying to sell me art when they asked:
1) Where are you from?
2) How long have you been in China?
3) Do you like Chinese food?
Those cunning China Daily reporters.
Chris O'Brien | 21-Jul-07 at 11:45 pm | Permalink
David, you always knew how to appeal to a wide audience! I’m not sure I can motivate myself to explain the world of “Stan Steer”, “Dave Crow” and “leucipottomy”. Suffice to say, life as a Teletext Racing Journalist was far weirder than that of a Xinhua polisher. (By the way, you knew as much as I did about who was going to win at Southwell, you, as a loyal reader, submitted a letter about leucipottomy demanding an answer and Dave Crow was the abstract ideal of an opinionated racing columnist.)
cat | 22-Jul-07 at 2:01 am | Permalink
Trouble is, even if the report was fake, the idea’s out there now. How many dodgy food sellers thought “that’s a good idea, I’ll do that”?
MAC | 22-Jul-07 at 4:51 pm | Permalink
Honestly, I feel sorry for all the honest baozi makers out there whose business has probably plunged. I already barely ever get to eat them because my fiance doesn’t like the smell, now I’m pretty much guaranteed to have to go behind her back.
Nerys | 23-Jul-07 at 11:22 pm | Permalink
When I was a “foreign polisher” at Xinhua in the 1990s, I was forced to give lectures on newswriting once a fortnight so thank your lucky stars your offers have been turned down! They were always packed though - I like to think it was because I was so entertaining and the exercises I gave the journalists were such fun.
Chris O'Brien | 24-Jul-07 at 10:04 am | Permalink
Nerys, I was about to say I’ll see if anyone can recall your teachings but you’re right - don’t want to give anyone ideas. Actually, we have been asked to give lectures from time to time (just not to the newcomers during the political ideology course) but after 18 months we now steadfastly refuse on the grounds that, due to so many external restrictions on the way the whole department operates, all the suggestions we would like to make (like picking up the telephone once in a while) would never be put into practice. Also you can end up giving the same lecture to an intern and a senior editor with 30 years’ experience.
Actually, most of the journalists already know how to write news stories. The problem is the pitiful material they have to work with which stems from the fact that they were told a year ago that they are “editors” not “reporters”. Some people are very good at getting round this problem though. Personally I think we should just give lectures to President Tian Congming every week.
michael | 25-Jul-07 at 7:35 am | Permalink
I was surprised to find that many of the reporters at China Daily were graduates of prestigious journalism schools in the UK and the US (City University, Columbia etc). And yet they certainly hid their lights under bushels in editorial meetings, doing the proverbial rabbit in headlights impression when it came to suggestions for stories. As someone who tried and failed to get into journalism school it was very frustrating to see those lucky enough to have gained a place to be such lame ducks.