没有社会痛感神经的中国喉舌媒体

2011年12月末，《人民日报》照例评出年度十大新闻。不幸的是，今年我在《人民日报》选取的十大新闻里，发现这最高级别喉舌的社会痛感神经已经完全失灵，这张报纸已经快变成了北京给自己粉刷脸面的胭脂粉饼了。

且请读者耐心看我罗列一下人民日报评选出来的国内十大新闻。按其重要性，依次为：1、“国八条”加大楼市调控；2、中央举办省部级主要领导干部社会管理及其创新专题研讨班；3、中国特色社会主义法律体系形成；4、“十二五”规划纲要通过；5、中央部门首次公开“三公”经费；6、庆祝中共成立90周年大会隆重举行；7、国务院查处“7•23”甬温线动车事故；8、十七届六中全会部署建设社会主义文化强国；9、天宫神八太空交会对接；10、全国粮食产量实现“八连增”。

其中除了“7•23甬温线事故”、“全国粮食产量实现八连增”与民生有关之外，其余均是党与政府自我娱乐的事情。而且在“7•23甬温线动车事故”前特别加上“国务院查处”五字，《人民日报》似乎忘记了这事故的始作俑者其实还是党与政府的自家人。

因为中国其它媒体今年似乎未选年度十大新闻，大都是十大军事新闻、科技新闻，无法作为参照物。只有《译者》通过投票选出了本年度“外国人看中国”的十大话题，可以用来作为《人民日报》十大年度新闻的参照物。

这十大话题是：No.1， 温州动车事故及中国的微博力量；No.2、 多名藏人连续自焚；No.3、 探险东师古，去见陈光诚；No.4、 艾未未被抓/被放/借债；No.5、 中国经济面临崩溃了吗？No.6、 南海纠纷；No.7 独立候选人参选地方人大；No.8、环境污染；No.9、群体骚乱此起彼伏；No.10
中东茉莉花革命对中国的影响。

其中，除了动车事故一条与《人民日报》选取的十大国内新闻重合之外，其余没有一条相同。而且在这唯一的相同点上，外国人看到的是中国网友通过微博参与，迫使政府追查动车事故背后的责任者，与《人民日报》歌颂政府的着眼点完全不同。

“外国人看中国”这十大新闻，概括了中国2011年的全貌：一、与国计民生有关的国有垄断企业的腐败（动车事故）；二、民权与人权：群体骚乱此起彼伏；独立候选人参选地方人大；探访陈光诚、艾未未被迫举债还政府那以莫须有罪名栽上的逃税罪；三、民生：严重影响中国人身体健康的环境污染，包括政治高层为自己避害的空气特供；中国经济面临崩溃的讨论，其中涉及到温州地下钱庄资金链断裂，在美国上市的中国公司因财务欺诈，其股票在美国被集体做空，中国房市走向等诸方面；四、少数民族问题：西藏僧人连续自焚事件，这是在国际社会引起严重关注的事件；五、南海纠纷：南海纠纷题目小，却关系到全球地缘政治重新洗牌、中国被周边邻国孤立，美国重返太平洋等等。尤其是这事关系到中国外交战略中多年苦心经营的“周边外交”与“金钱+大外宣”策略完全失灵。中国在国内将这些要么轻描淡写，要么归因于美国阴谋。国内人几乎不知真实情况。六、在阿拉伯之春影响下，发源于推特上的中国茉莉花革命。这场虚拟的革命曾经让中国当局紧张了好几个月并大规模抓捕人，一些被捕人士的命运就此改写。

应该说，译者选取的十大新闻才真实地反映了2011年的中国现状。从《人民日报》选取的十大新闻来看，完全无视社会各阶层的利益诉求，无视民间的权利主张，只顾自欺欺人地夸耀那些往往流于官样文章的五年规划、文化建设，粉饰莫须有的治绩。与中国人民几乎没有作何利益的交叉点，《人民日报》这种选取新闻的办法，其实不仅是遮蔽现实，还是阉割历史，因为昨天的新闻就是今天的历史。

美国著名新闻记者约瑟夫•普利策曾说过：“倘若一个国家是一条航行在大海上的船，新闻记者就是船头的了望者，他要在一望无际的海面上观察一切，审视海上的不测风云和浅滩暗礁，及时发出警报。”这样一种完全切断了社会痛感神经的官方报纸，早已经遭到中国人的冷落。我在国内时，《人民日报》的订阅就成了中宣部下令摊派且必须要完成的“政治任务”。如今，在公共场所阅读这份报纸都成为周围人耻笑的目标，日本青年加藤嘉一最近在访谈中谈到过自己这一遭遇。与《人民日报》起同样喉舌功能的中央电视台、党中央机关刊物《求是》均遭到网民的耻笑，那段著名的“电脑与电视的差别”已经收入了网络经典名句，还被制作成动画，被淋漓尽致地嘲讽。

我想，如果将来能够自由书写中国新闻史，《人民日报》等媒体一定可以入选，用来向后人展示：在政府控制下的喉舌是如何颠倒黑白，罔顾民瘼，向权力献媚。

China’s mouthpiece media lack social pain nerves

By He Qinglian on January 3, 2012
Translated by kRiZcPEc

http://hqlenglish.blogspot.com/2012/01/china-media.html

In late December 2011, the People’s Daily picked as usual the top ten news stories of the year. Unfortunately in that list I found that the social pain nerves of the most superior mouthpiece have ceased to function altogether. That newspaper would soon become rouge powder that Beijing uses to make itself look good.

Please let me first list out what the People’s Daily has included in its selection of the top ten local news stories. According to their importance, the ten stories are: 1) property market regulation tightened by “the State Council’s new eight decrees”; 2) the central government organized social management and innovation symposium for key leading cadets at provincial and ministerial levels; 3) the Socialist law system with Chinese characteristics has taken shape; 4) passage of the “twelfth five-year” guideline; 5) departments at the central government revealed for the first time the budget for “three public expenditures”; 6) grand gathering held to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the establishment of CPC; 7) State Council investigated July 23 Hi-speed train crash and meted out punishment; the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee planned to forge a Socialist cultural power; 9) Tiangong-1 docked to Shenzhou-8; and 10) nationwide food production grew for eight consecutive years.

Among these news stories, only the hi-speed train crash incident and growth in nationwide food production for eight successive years were related to the people’s livelihood. All the rest were events with which the party and the government entertained themselves. What’s more, the wordings “State Council investigated…and meted out punishment” were specially added to the train crash report, the People’s Daily seemed to have forgotten it was the parties affiliated with the CPC and the government that caused this in the first place.

Since other media in China apparently have yet to choose the top ten new stories of the year, there are only top ten military news stories, or top ten science and technology reports. No cross reference materials are available except the year’s top ten topics in “foreign media on China”, which the Translators chose by vote counts.

And these ten topics are: 1) Wenzhou train crash and the power of China’s Weibo; 2) self-immolation of a number of Tibetans; 3) Dongshigu adventure, visiting Chen Guangcheng; 4) Ai Weiwei’s detention, release, and borrowing money; 5) China’s economy on the brink of collapse?; 6) South China Sea disputes; 7) Independent candidates stood for local people’s delegate elections; Pollution; 9) Recurring mass unrest; 10) Impacts the Middle East Jasmine Revolutions had on China.

Among these topics, only the reports on the train crash appeared also in the top ten news stories chosen by the People’s Daily, none of the rest was identical. And even on this issue, the foreign media looked at it from an angle totally different from the People’s Daily, which praised the government. The foreign media saw that Chinese netizens participated through Weibo, forcing the government to investigate the parties responsible for the crash.

The top ten news stories on the Translators’ “Foreign Media on China” presented the whole picture of China in 2011.

First, monopoly and corruptions of State-owned enterprises that affect the country and the people (the train crash); second, citizens’ rights and human rights—recurring mass unrest, independent candidates standing for local people’s assemblies elections, visiting Chen Guangcheng and Ai Weiwei’s being forced to borrow to settle the tax evasion charge that the government framed him; third, people’s livelihood: pollution that seriously affected the health of the Chinese people, and top officials who arranged for themselves the privilege of purified air, discussions on whether China’s economy was on the brink of collapse, which included issues like the rupture of capital chain of the underground money lenders of Wenzhou, shares of Chinese companies listing in the U.S. stock market were being dumped collectively because of financial fraud charges, and the outlook of China’s real property market; fourth, issues of ethnic minorities: a succession self-immolation of Tibetan monks, causing grave concerns in international community; fifth, South China Sea disputes: though the topic was not a big one, it involved a re-shuffle of global geopolitics, it involved China’s being isolated its bordering countries, it also involved the United States’ return to the Pacific and so on. In particular, the United States’ return to the Pacific signified that China’s diplomatic strategies of peripheral diplomacy and “dollar-cum-great external propaganda” had become a complete failure despite years of hard work. Locally in China, the media outlets either reported these lightly or blamed them on the United States. Few in the country knew what the truth is; and, sixth, under the influence of the Arab Spring, a Jasmine revolution that originated from twitter spurred up in China. That virtual revolution had at one point got on the nerves of the Chinese government, which ordered arrests on a massive scale, effectively altering the lives of some of the detainees.

It should be said that it was the ten news stories selected by the Translators that genuinely reflected how China was in 2011. Judging from the top ten news stories chosen by the People’s Daily, the newspaper was totally oblivious of the interests and demands of various classes and the rights propositions of the public, it showed off self-deceivingly in articles which were tantamount to empty official-speak the five-year plan, the forging of a culture and “accomplishments” that made things look better. Bearing almost no relevance to the people’s interests, the way the People’s Daily selected its top ten stories was in fact not only obscuring the reality, but also making history incomplete: since yesterday’s news is today’s history.

Renowned American Journalist Joseph Pulitzer had allegedly said that: “if a country is a sailing boat in the sea, then the journalist is the observer on the bow, he should monitor everything in the endless sea, pay attention to the unpredictable things and shallow reefs, and give warning in a timely manner.” The Chinese people have long been indifferent toward official newspapers that have completely severed their social pain nerves. When I was in the country (before 2001), subscription of the People’s Daily was already a political task assigned by the Central Propaganda Department which must be fulfilled. Nowadays, anyone who is seen reading that newspaper in public venue would be laughed at—which was what Kato Yoshikazu, a Japanese young man, said to have experienced in a recent interview. Chinese netizens are also mocking the Central Television stations and QiuShi, a Party Central committee’s publication, both serve as mouthpieces. The widely circulated comment that compared “the difference between computers and Televisions” was included in famous saying on the internet, used to create animation and ridiculed incisively and vividly. That comment went: as soon as you switch on a computer, you’d feel the darkness of society: corrupt officials, evil forces running rampant, widespread poverty, as though a [revolution] would soon break out; yet once you turn on a telly, you’d feel it’s a harmonious society: everyone’s happy, people are all singing and dancing, it’s all peaceful, there’s long-term stability, and nothing would happen in a hundred years. Computers are like real life snapshots, and tellies are like wedding photos. In China, we can’t afford to use cooking oil, the walkway; going to school, seeing a doctor, or buying a flat are all above our means; we don’t even have enough to get ourselves a grave! It’s too costly to eat vegetables, to repay debts, to sue, to upset the officials, to rear a child, and to love. We couldn’t bear our conscience or to help a stumbled elderly person. How amazing it is that we are still alive. Please forward if you agree. If you don’t, go watch Xinwen Lianbo (News Simulcast)

I think, in future when people can write freely about China’s history of journalism, media outlets such as the People’s Daily would definitely be included to show the future generations this: how government-controlled mouthpieces talked black into white, paying no attention to the people’s grievances and curried favor with those in power.