MCLC: "terrorism" in Kunming (4)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: "terrorism" in Kunming (4)
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Thanks to Kevin for posting the ifeng comment. Can you point to a single
report in the Western media that has sought to play down the significance
of this tragic event, or which showed sympathy for terrorists? I’ve been
reading everything I can about this, and have not found a single incidence
of a media organization making this look like anything other than
horrendous, and I’ve not seen one report in the Western media that in any
way sympathized with the terrorists.

It’s easy for ifeng to make such claims. I looked at the link and it
focuses on single words or short phrases, without any context. It’s
difficult to make any sort of judgement without the entire context.

This is the State Council Information Office instruction on the coverage
of the Kunming attack:

State Council Information Office: Media that report on the knife attack
incident that occurred March 1 at the Kunming railway station must
strictly adhere to Xinhua News Agency wire copy or information provided by
local authorities. Do not treat the story with large headlines; do not
publish grisly photos. Please respond to confirm that you have received
this message. Thank you.

Please note that in addition to ordering the domestic Chinese media to
play down the news, that the SCIO calls the event “the knife attack
incident”, and does not use the word terrorist. Note also that ifeng
complained that the Western media used the term knife attack rather than
terrorism.

So the international media is attacked for allegedly playing down the news
of this tragedy—which I don’t think it has done—while the Chinese
government issues a strict order to play it down.

Paul