中国媒体报道“占领运动”为何先热后冷？

如果注意阅读中国媒体消息，就会发现以10月15日为界，中国媒体对“占领华尔街运动”的报道热情骤减，如果说此前各门户网站都有专题推出，并放在非常显要的位置，那么声势浩大的全球“占领运动”可说几乎不被媒体“关注”。

我于美东时间10月16日上午9时上网搜索，发现国内大小网站相关报道只有一条，“抗议示威蔓延至71国 英国民众包围伦敦证交所”，新浪（北京）网将此消息登在很不起眼的位置上，但新浪（北美）网的头条却是“占领华尔街运动升级蔓延至伦敦东京”；其时腾讯网首页见不到相关消息，网易的头条是“中泰双方对遇难船员尸检并勘查”，首页上未见这类消息。我在推特上向众推友咨询，据一推友告知，网易早些时曾登载，在讨论区里争论非常热烈。

不仅国内媒体如此，连凤凰网都只在15日登出一条“‘占领华尔街’蔓延至亚太和欧洲 亚太地区民众声援‘占领华尔街运动’”。与此同时，是我在国内某网站的微博再次失灵，发不出任何信息。这已经是惯例，每逢北京认为有事发生，我的微博就陷入如此状况（据说其他微博也有类似情况）。

看来北京是将以下这类消息当成真事了。因为就在15日，曾集中发布中国茉莉花革命消息的博讯网发布了一条消息：“茉莉花运动”告一段落，‘占领北京’悄悄登场”。除了这条网上真假难辨的消息之外，真正发生的有“百人赴临沂”活动，维权人士通过网上传递信息，从全国各地出发至临沂去看望被囚禁的陈光诚。

也就是说，全球的占领活动发生之后，北京那种幸灾乐祸的宣传戛然而止，忙着灭自家院里的火去了。至于那“火“，大概是不灭就会成真。

翻检一下在北京指挥棒下起舞的几家中国官媒这半个多月的报道，实在让人哑然失笑。美国政府与媒体多年来在中国的人权、政治及控制新闻媒体方面持续有批评之声，因为事实俱在，北京的反击除了讲“美国害怕中国强大，意图阻扼中国崛起”之外，始终找不到多少机会回击美国。9月中旬美国发生“占领华尔街”运动之后，北京终于觉得逮到了向美国报一箭之仇的机会了。以英文《中国日报》、《环球时报》与《光明日报》为代表的媒体言论，对这场运动作了如此解读：

一、占领者反对的是美式资本主义制度，这一观点以《光明日报》（ 2011年10月15日）那篇“向美式资本主义说不”为代表。该文开篇就说：“国际舆论注意到，参与‘占领’运动的美国民众表面上是在指控那些‘华尔街肥猫’，可实质上是在揭露不公平、不合理、罪恶而又丑陋的美式资本主义制度。向美式资本主义说‘不’”。

二、美国没有真正的新闻自由率先提出这个话题的是中国最大的外宣刊物英文报纸《中国日报》，该报驻纽约记者、美国版副主编陈伟华写了一篇“新闻封锁华尔街抗议是美国主流媒体的耻辱”，该文说，从9月中旬占领华尔街抗议活动开展以来，美国的主流媒体都没有报道此次示威活动，这表明美国并没有真正的新闻自由。从此以后，中国媒体铺天盖地的宣传“美国没有真正的新闻自由”。比如《光明日报》评论说“美国媒体与华尔街老板高度一致”，“美国媒体对‘占领华尔街’集体失声的事实充分说明，它们短缺的恰恰是自己一贯标榜的所谓‘新闻自由’,根本不可能摆脱为老板服务、为商业利益服务、为一小撮社会精英集团服务的命运,从来不该也不配享有社会良心的美名。”

这些指责基本出自臆想。有关美媒集体失声之事，只要能够自由阅读，就会明白这种攻击完全是无稽之谈，因为从《纽约时报》、《华尔街日报》到《大西洋月刊》，都分析报道了这次运动。参与这次运动的人士目前的主张是反对华尔街那“1%的肥猫”，却并没有针对美式资本主义制度。其深层原因是，美国政府尤其是民主党执政的政府，过去多年来一直支持两房、信用扩张、救助金融和汽车巨头，这些政策从支持低收入者购买住房到保住金融系统、为工人提供就业机会，几乎全都是出自民众利益考虑。所谓次贷危机的源头就是克林顿主政白宫时因鼓励穷人买房提供金融支持。应该说，这也是“占领华尔街”抗议活动无法在美国“长大”的原因。

10月15日全球多国“占领”活动，主题是抗议不公平的金融秩序、贫富悬殊等经济、社会等问题，不少国家的抗议者还要求政府削减开支。应该说，抗议者提出的问题在世界大多数国家均存在，只是程度不同以及形成原因各异。但当互联网上出现“占领北京”的口号以后，北京当局突然回过神来，发现这把火可能会延烧到自个庭院里来，于是态度立刻来了一个180度大转变，媒体的报道也不得不跟着急刹车。这就是中国媒体对“占领活动”的报道由热转冷的真正原因。

Why has Chinese media’s coverage of the “Occupy Movement” turned cold?
Why has Chinese media’s coverage of the “Occupy Movement” turned cold?
By He Qinglian on Oct 17, 2011

http://hqlenglish.blogspot.com/2011/10/china-on-occupy-wall-st.html?spref=tw

Those who keep a close eye on information from Chinese media would find that after October 15, Chinese media’s coverage of “Occupy Wall Street” became much less enthusiastic all of a sudden. While before that date every media outlet had special reports of the movement that were placed at prominent spots of their websites; the massive global “Occupy Movement” received almost no attention.

On Oct 16, I did a search at 9 AM EDT, and found that there was only one report about the movement across big or small websites inside China: “Protests and demonstrations spread to 71 countries, British people surrounded the London Stock Exchange”. While Sina (Beijing) positioned this story at an inconspicuous spot, Sina (North America) made a headline report that read: “Occupy Wall Street movement escalated and spread to London and Tokyo”. At that time no related stories could be found on Tencent’s homepage, and the headline of NetEase was “China and Thailand carried out autopsies on dead crew and investigation”, no report on the “Occupy movement” could be found on its homepage.

I asked on twitter if there was any coverage of the movement inside China, a twitterer told me that NetEase did report it a while earlier and stirred up heated argument in its forum.

And I found out it wasn’t just media outlets inside China that played down the movement, Phoenix, a propaganda vehicle operating outside China, had but one report on the movement: “’Occupy Wall Street’ spread to Asia-Pacific and Europe; People in Asia-Pacific region are in solidarity with the ‘Occupy Wall Street movement’”

Meanwhile, my Weibo account on a website inside China was frozen, I could not send out anything with it. This freeze has already become routine, whenever Beijing believes something is going to happen, my Weibo account gets frozen.

It appeared that Beijing thought the following story was real: Boxun, the website that reported extensively on China’s Jasmine revolution, published a report that read “’Jasmine movement’ is over; ‘Occupy Beijing’ is rolling out slowly and quietly”. Apart from this report which truthfulness is hard to determine, what really has been on going is the “Head for Linyi” movement. Rights activists disseminated information online, and set off from across the country to Linyi, where activist Chen Guangcheng is being held.

In other words, after the “Occupy Movement” turned global, Beijing has stopped its propaganda and got occupied with firefighting in its own backyard. Chances are that ‘imaginary fire’, so long as it is not put out, would become a real one.

Looking back at Chinese state media reports made under instructions from Beijing this half a month, one cannot help but laugh. For years U.S. government and the media having been criticizing persistently China for it human rights, politics and media control. Since these are facts, Beijing’s counter argument could only be “the United States is fearful of a powerful China, and intends to stop China from rising.” Not much else could be said to retaliate the United States.

In mid-September when the “Occupy Wall Street” movement broke out in the United States, Beijing felt this was at last the chance to get even. Headed by China Daily, Global Times and Guangming Daily, China’s Media made the following interpretation of the movement:

First, what the occupiers oppose is the American capitalist system.
This view is presented by the article “Say ‘No’ to American capitalism”, published in Guangming Daily on Oct 15, 2011. Right at the beginning that article said, “It has come to the attention of the International [community] that, on the face of it, the American people who took part in the “Occupy movement” are accusing the “Wall Street fat cats”, but in reality, they are revealing the unfair, unreasonable, sinful and ugly American capitalist system. Say ‘No’ to American capitalism.”

Second, there is no genuine freedom of the press in United States.
The first to raise this topic was China’s largest external propaganda publication, China Daily. Its correspondent in New York, deputy editor of the China Daily USA, Chen Weihua published an article, “US media blackout of protest is shameful”, saying that since the Occupy Wall Street movement began in mid-September, mainstream US media have not reported on the mass rally, a sign that there is no genuine freedom of the press in the United States.

After that, China’s media started their propaganda in full swing: “no genuine freedom of the press in the United States”. One such example is a commentary from Guangming Daily, which said “U.S. media are highly consistent with the Wall Street bosses”, “the collective muteness of U.S. media on “Occupy Wall Street” made it crystal clear that the U.S. media lack precisely the so-called freedom of the press, something that they have advertised all along. There is no way they could break free from the destiny of serving the bosses, business interests and a handful of social elites. They should never be hailed as social conscience, they don’t deserve to be called that way.”

They are making these accusations based on their imagination. Regarding the collective muteness of U.S. media, those who could read freely would realize these attacks are sheer nonsense: New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly have all run reports on the movement. The current proposition of those taking part in the movement is to oppose the “1% fat cats” of the Wall Street, they do not target the American capitalist system.

The underlying reason for the protesters not to target the American capitalist system is that the U.S. government, especially when the Democrats ran it, has for years been supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, credit expansion, and rescuing financial and automotive giants. Almost all of these policies, from supporting the low-income to buy their flat, to securing the financial system, and to providing the workers with job opportunities, are rolled out with the interests of the public in mind. The origin of the so-called subprime mortgage crisis was the financial support the Clinton administration provided with the poor to encourage them to buy flat. It should be said that this is the reason the “Occupy Wall Street” protest has no way to become bigger in the United States.

The proposition of the “Occupy Movement” taking place in countries around the globe on October 15 is to protest against economic and social problems like unfair financial order, and the wealth gap, protesters in many countries also called on their government to cut expenditure.

Issues the protesters raised exist in most countries; it’s only the degree and the causes that are different. But when the slogan “occupy Beijing” appeared on the Internet, it dawned on Beijing that this fire could spread to its own backyard, therefore a u-turn in its attitude toward the movement immediately ensued, and media’s coverage of it has had to be stopped hastily.

That’s the true reason Chinese media’s coverage of the “Occupy Movement” turned from hot to cold.
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