Imagethief

They got their games. Yes, *their* games. They've won the most medals. They are a vindicated nation now. No more "You forced opium on us" or "you guys subjugated a weak dynasty to humiliation". They're now past that and above it, right? China is now the greatest country on Earth. The number of gold medals prove it, right? The debutante has walked down the staircase. Now we can see a real world "power" show the way and lead by example.

May Rogge, his IOC crew and BOCOG go to a posh 12-star hotel, crack open a few bottles of Cristal and Moutai, line a glass table with cocaine snorts and go all night screwing each other in the posterior. They are cut of the same cloth.

Can we go back to regular programming soon (and may I never hear "jia you" again)??

Aren't journalists paid salaries to do their jobs already by their companies just like other professionals? Why anyone needs to treat journalists like royalties or give them any advantage ?  I think many journalists have an oversized impression of their real selves, their training, ability and knowledge.

I wonder how Chinese officials would cope with Paxman.

Hunxuer " and may I never hear "jia you" again "

Absolutely, and the same goes for "Piao Liang!"

Re comment #2:

I didn't realize giving a straight answer to a simple question constituted "treating someone like royalty".

Re comment #4

Why do you think anyone need to give a straight answer to a simple question from journalist? Nobody owes journalist a living.

Nobody *needs* to give anybody a straight answer, but who's going to trust someone who doesn't?

The point here isn't that we feel sorry for the poor journalists, it's that BOCOG and IOC are making themselves look bad.

"Given that the Chinese government has lied through its teeth in keeping its promises, is the I.O.C. in any way embarrassed?"

Wish I'd seen it live. Great sport.

He was absolutely justified in asking this question in light of the press freedoms (among other things) that were promised and not delivered.

Davies' answers give an accurate indication of just how much the IOC are in Beijing's pocket. Best Games ever, anyone?

Well, you know, the IOC is HQ'd in Switzerland...the nation that stored stolen treasures of WWII and was a depository for gold harvested from the teeth of millions of Holocaust victims.

Maybe Rogge thinks he should carry on the tradition of that sort of Swiss "neutrality"??

Will: I am of the opinion that while the journalists have the right to ask questions but the news conference organiser has the right not to answer any question or to answer the question in the manner the organiser sees fit. It is not uncommon that journalists questions are not given straight answers the world over by anyone or any organisations the journalists care to ask questions.

JB: I am of the opinion that whether BOCOG is embarassed or not should not prevent journalists from doing their jobs they are paid to do. I am more inclined to believe the journalist was not agrieved at not getting a straight answer to his simple question but rather on cloud 9 basking in limelight after such a heroic attempt .

@JC - The 'jobs they are paid to do' involve asking questions, the job the spokesperson is paid to do involves giving answers. Who did their job and who did not? If officials announce something that is clearly incorrect (and in this case, it is clear that they did) then it is correct that journalists should ask whether they knew that what they were saying was incorrect when they said it.

@FOARP - I am of the opinion that while the journalists have the right to ask questions but the news conference organiser has the right not to answer any question or to answer the question in the manner the organiser sees fit. It is not uncommon that journalists questions are not given straight answers the world over by anyone or any organisations the journalists care to ask questions.

@JC - But what happens then is the news conference organiser then looses all credibility. In this case the spokesperson has basically conceded that they lied, the journalist is now free to say whatever he likes about them, he is also free to ask whether the other things that have been said are lies. Simply put: by not responding they are handing journalists <i>carte blanche</i> to make the headline of their next story: "BOCOG announcement on X - more lies?".

Obviously, the reporter from Channel 4 is an ideal lecturer for your upcoming "insult" course.

Come on, if someone is showing you the finger, keep smiling at him would no longer seem gracious, but rather pathetic.

"Angry" and "idiot" are pretty subjective terms - how do you know Mr. Wang was angry, and on what bases do you consider his behavior idiotic? Because according to the narrative of a Chinese journalist present at the PC, Mr. Wang was indeed "calm and unruffled".

@Will: Sorry Will ! I will try not to be so lazy and write something different this time. I just wanted to raise the point that no one needs to answer every question that the media ask but like you suggested good media skill is needed do it in a good way.

What you said about media skill above is of course more sensible, rational and professional in approach. I remembered seeing a few Donald Rumsfeld news conferences on tv. It was fun seeing how he handled journalists, many of whom probably left with bruised ass's and pride at the end of each of his news conference. Of course, again the Rumsfeld way may not be the most proper way to handle the press.

@FOARP: I agreed there probably could be better way to handle the press questions like Will said. But I do not see the logical basis in your saying that by not giving a straight answer to a journalist's simple question it leads to a loss of credibility on the part of BOCOG and it could be concluded that BOCOG conceded to having lied.

Of course in the mind of the journalist, there is nothing to stop journalist from thinking that BOCOG has lost credibility and more irrespective of whether the journalist knows what logic is, but that is beyond the news conference organiser.

My point is, the journalists are not god and no one needs to entertain every of their questions. Of course as you and Will suggested there would be bad press and the BOCOG probably does not have the luxury of overly confrontational with the journalists. If one could not care less about what the press is going write, one may very well have the right to give the press the "middle finger" as long as it does not break local laws.

Sometimes what the press writes kill, cause wars, genocides, riots, drive people to suicides, break up families, destroy lives, defame people, all in breach of basic human rights, irrespective of whether the victims talk to the press or not(of course this is not to say the press does not also play very important constructive roles in our society.(There are many great passionate journalists around but we can't say that for all journalists). We all know the great power of the press that only a few have and the temptations by some to abuse it and to make other people suckers(some describe this as gangsterism in journalism). The press are always able to interpret your actions any way they want to no matter what you say or not say and you are left the suckers most of the time.

Given the above repetitve serious breaches of human rights(hr) everyday the world over by the press, I am very tempted to ask the smart aleck journalist the simple question "Are you embarassed?" and if possible I have further questions below for the same smart aleck journalist :

"Given your concern about hr, what are you going to do about the Press' blatant breaches of hr?"

"How long time do you need to do something about the Press' breaches of hr?"

"Would you hold regular press conference to inform the world about the progress of your fight against hr abuses by the so-called free Press? "  

One can only wonder if that smart aleck would be more polite than the BOCOG when confronted with such questions.

@JC - Okay, let's look at what happened:

1) BOCOG's security chief made an announcement saying that protest areas would be established where, so long as they did not advocate separatism or infringe on China's sovereignty, those applied for the right to protest and had their application granted would be allowed to protest. "Chinese law protects legal assembly," he said.

2) No applications were granted, no protest permitted.

3) Journalist asks spokesperson how the parks represent progress if no one was being allowed to protest.

4) Spokesperson basically calls journo an uppity foreigner who thinks he's smarter than the Chinese

5) Journalist asks IOC if they are embarrassed by 'government lies'.

6) IOC spokesperson gives non-answer.

Let me ask you - would world war three have broken out if either of these officials had given better answers? Or at least not stooped to stone-walling and insults? These journalists now can walk away and say that BOCOG are pack of liars who feel free to disregard world opinion and answer questions with insults - and every word would be true.

Why didn't they allow the token level of protest that everyone was expecting? If they couldn't permit this - then why did they establish the protest zones in the first place?

As for your questions - they are the kind that journalists field everyday, and are studied by academics and students on journalism courses in universities around the world. I am yet to meet a journalist who answers them as Mr. Wang answers them, even though journalists are not all members of an organisation which has specifically promised to allow something and then blatantly reneged on its promise.

@wgj: And what's the chance of a Chinese journalist daring to make Wang Wei look bad?  Even if he was unruffled and calm, the point is he didn't answer the question, which naturally looks suspicious.

@JC: You make it sound as though all journalists are responsible for frequently causing wars, etc.  Exactly how often does this happen?  And how often does it happen because a journalist asked a government official a pointed question?  And how can you blame everyone in a whole profession?  And more to the point, as FOARP points out, how in heaven's name could Wang Wei giving a straight answer cause a disaster?

If you think journalists are bad, you should consider what governments do: start wars for no good reason, deprive their people of political rights, ignore aggrieved citizens and then imprison them for protesting... not to mention manipulating the media to advance its own goals and, indeed, start wars or justify oppression.  Sometimes the media may be culpable, but if you blame the media you're blaming the puppet while ignoring the puppetmaster.  It's governments, the guys with guns and money, who need to be kept in line, and that's what a journalist's job should be.

I think in some situations, being passive-aggressive (especially sarcastic) is a great tactic for a spokesperson. If there exists no good answer to a question, it's not a bad idea to try redirecting the attention to the way the question is asked. Some of the journalists at the BOCOG PC are clearly going out of line in their tones and attitudes, which provides a perfect opportunity for this tactic.

@ JC;FOARP

I don't think I have time to find out all the atrocities where the press played very important parts, but to name a few the Nazi campaigns, Rwanda genocides, race riots in numerous countries,...tenths of millions lives lost..

I did remarked "(of course this is not to say the press does not also play very important constructive roles in our society.(There are many great passionate journalists around but we can't say that for all journalists).... The phrase "journalistic gansterism" was not coined for no reason I believed.

@FOARP:

I have largely no issues with what you said what BOCOG should have answered. But then it is human rights for BOCOG, journalists, you, me and everyone else. That is the essence of human rights I believe.

@JC: I'm still waiting to hear how this applies to this situation, and I'm still unconvinced that when journalists are in some way responsible for whatever atrocity, it was because they were not hard enough on governments.

I'm not exactly sure how journalists made the Nazis possible... something tells me Hitler would still have come to power if journalists asked questions more nicely.

@will: Your recommendation is based on the common sense assumption that you can avoid bad press by not doing anything stupid. Unfortunately, we have a special case here where this just isn't true. Some journalists attending the BOCOG PC are going to give you bad press no matter what, I absolutely believe there is nothing one can do to prevent it. Given that, I'd rather have bad press about unsubstantial matters (like a verbal fight with the journalists) that nobody cares about besides the self-serving press, in order to lessen bad press about actual issues the readers might be interested in.

@WGJ -

"Given that, I'd rather have bad press about unsubstantial matters (like a verbal fight with the journalists) that nobody cares about besides the self-serving press, in order to lessen bad press about actual issues the readers might be interested in."

Strange idea, and it might have worked had they actually tried it, instead of giving them a reason to run another story on BOCOG's broken promises.

@JB: I have posted my reply twice but it did not show up here. May be it is too big. I will try post some smaller later if it still would not show after few days.

@Will: Thanks Will!

In most of these cases the problem is that the press does not challenge the government, or allows itself to be used as a tool of the government.  As I said before, the main perpetrator is the government.  Again, how does that apply to this situation, where a journalist is instead challenging a government official?

Also, you'd do well to choose articles that don't tell readers exactly what to think, like WSWS.  WSWS is fair the way Fox is balanced.

@J B: My point is that we should not completely trust every journalist because one can not tell for sure what is on their agenda. Bad journalists are very often part of the bad governing regime. The IOC's main aims are to provide world peace, hormony and friendship amongst nations and people of this world. It is one of the very few  truely great institution of mankind. We all ought to be thankful that these IOC people dedicated themselves for these very huge responsibilities and  are doing really great work eventhough the tasks are truely titanic. The IOC's approach to promoting the world peace, harmony and frienship is non-confrontational one.  If human activists and some journalists are not happy with the effort of IOC on human rights, they should build their own institution to pursue their own agenda instead trying to find the easy way out by placing their HR requirements on IOC and they just sit back and whine about IOC not doing enough HR. Promotion world piece is very heavy lifting tasks and so is promoting human rights.

IOC already undertakes the heavy lifting task of promoting the world peace. I think it is only fair that HR activists and some journalists should work harder and do their fair share like IOC to find other way to undertake the heavy lifting task of improving HR in the world. I think it is unprofessional to try to hijack and shaft HR agenda down the throat of IOC. Certainly IOC do not deserve to be asked question like "Are you embarassed ?" from opportunistic people who only talk and write and expect other people to do the dirty work for them while claiming credit at the slightest opportunity.

The articles linked in my post above were meant to show there are great many people who are suspicious of the journalists.