October 23, 2001

7:11 AM

Speaking of Tokyo Rose: AOL/Time Warner, with assistance from the Bush administration, signed a "landmark deal" with China. AOL/TW gets to broadcast a Chinese-language station in the area of China that already gets Western programming (although illegally), and in exchange AOL/TW agrees to broadcast a Chinese state sponsored English language channel in Los Angeles, New York and Houston. "We are very pleased to have achieved this landmark agreement, which represents a significant step in the growing relationship between AOL Time Warner and the people of China," said CEO Gerald Levin in a statement. Why does this make my skin crawl?
posted by bclark (17 comments total)

I watched some chinese televsion at the Venetian in Las Vegas in my suite there. The chinese are a huge market for vegas. Chinese tv is just plain WEIRD!
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 7:14 AM on October 23, 2001

And Rupert Murdoch (a US citizen, although we'll see how long that lasts) kowtowed to the Chinese authorities by lifting BBC World broadcasts from from his Star TV satellite network.
posted by holgate at 7:20 AM on October 23, 2001

From the article: "Yet it's not known whether the Chinese government will censor any programming it may find offensive." Hmmph. Let me put my finger on the creepiness factor here: the possibility that the Chinese government will get to control what gets broadcast in China, and then turn around and broadcast whatever they want to in Houston. Pretty much a win-win situation for them, while AOL/TW represents our side by bending over and saying "please sir, may I have another". Pure speculation, of course.

posted by gimonca at 7:21 AM on October 23, 2001

Um. How does AOL-TW and China have anything to do with Tokyo Rose?

Anyone?
posted by dogmatic at 7:47 AM on October 23, 2001

from a washpost article via drudge:

"The deal is also a turning point for China's communist officials. They regard television as a key propaganda tool and strictly control it, though millions of Chinese already watch broadcasts from abroad on illegal satellite dishes. Beijing appeared to be willing to relax those controls slightly in exchange for getting access to American audiences."

looks like the baywatch samizdat is alive and well :)
posted by kliuless at 7:47 AM on October 23, 2001

i think because they both have to do with broadcasting in asia and hey, close enough!
posted by kliuless at 7:50 AM on October 23, 2001

Um. How does AOL-TW and China have anything to do with Tokyo Rose?

Uhhh...because both Tokyo Rose and this Chinese TV channel are/were government-run propaganda machines whose broadcasts range/d from half-truths to outright lies concerning matters both internal and domestic?
posted by thewittyname at 7:57 AM on October 23, 2001

"Uhhh...because both Tokyo Rose and this Chinese TV channel are/were government-run propaganda machines whose broadcasts range/d from half-truths to outright lies concerning matters both internal and domestic" ummm, your completly wrong, ummmm. Almost any news agency can be named so under your criteria. Tokyo Rose directly spoke to americans, spoke to them of dying in battle, etc. she was a black operations officer as was lord ha-ha and ezra pound (to some degree)
posted by newnameintown at 8:03 AM on October 23, 2001

Uhhh...because both Tokyo Rose and this Chinese TV channel are/were government-run propaganda machines whose broadcasts range/d from half-truths to outright lies concerning matters both internal and domestic?

Which is different than the free market propaganda machine whose broadcasts range from half-truths to outright lies in America, right?

Right.
posted by dogmatic at 8:05 AM on October 23, 2001

Which is different than the free market propaganda machine whose broadcasts range from half-truths to outright lies in America, right?

I never said that it wasn't....although you glaze over the important difference between state-run and free-market media outlets. As much as Americans whine about the lack of journalistic integrity in the media these days (and I am one of these said whiners), it is a far cry from the kind of propaganda machines set up by autocratic states that you around the world. I would still trust CNN over the state-run news channel in China.

Almost any news agency can be named so under your criteria.

Yeah...I hate Fox News too.
posted by thewittyname at 8:24 AM on October 23, 2001

I watched some chinese televsion at the Venetian in Las Vegas ... Chinese tv is just plain WEIRD!

That was most likely Taiwanese television, which is truly weird. Chinese television is not weird, just boring.

I occasionally catch CCTV's English language broadcast in Beijing. Believe me, this is some of the blandest television found anywhere in the world. It will certainly be consigned to the nether regions of the AOL/TW cable spectrum; channel 162 sandwiched between 20 channels of infomercials. Nobody in the US will know it exists, let alone watch it.
posted by chinstrap at 8:37 AM on October 23, 2001

I don't see propaganda in our future, I see kung-fu movies 24 HOURS A DAY.
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:20 AM on October 23, 2001

Why does this make my skin crawl?

Is this a riddle?
posted by websavvy at 12:03 PM on October 23, 2001

In the 1950s, the United States and USSR began exchanging propaganda magazines. The United States Information Agency [since folded back into the State Department] produced one called America; the Russians produced one called various names, but mainly Soviet Life. In 1966, our magazine interviewed Lyndon Johnson about various things for our magazine and his thoughts on the exchange.

I used to read Soviet Life to find out more about the big black hole of information that was the USSR. (Young people today may not realize just how opaque the Iron Curtain was, at least up until the days of Gorbachev and glasnost. The Churchillian aphorism Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma was quite true.)

CCTV-9 (the Chinese government station that will be syndicated to the US) is watchable online. And guess what, Grant: kung fu!
Incidentally, for anyone reading this in the future, this is the hard URL for the article, though I don't have any idea how long it might remain online.
posted by dhartung at 5:25 PM on October 23, 2001

i collect propaganda posters. i like the russian ones. sold almost all my collection.(i really like cosmonaut posters) propaganda should not bother one. making(by force) one accept propaganda as truth is the crime, the real...stinker. i guess my beef is with the TR connotation with the news story. Lord ha-ha would have made a great band name if he wasnt regarded as a traitor...Ebola in Afghanistan. now thats propaganda. who benefits is really kinda sorta moot. anyone would benefit from said story. except if it were true...umm.ya.
posted by newnameintown at 7:42 PM on October 23, 2001

Speaking of paid propoganda by government agenceies... Does the deal between Disney and West Point freak anyone else out? It's a new level of corporation-wide saturation marketing plans. There's a a prime-time ABC special (not explicitly marked as ads), to two specials on ESPN (ditto), to the history channel (ditto), Lifetime and Good Morning America (which for some reason will be). This deal strikes me as somehow worse than traditional placement deals. Maybe I'm just fearing the megalopoly this morning, but I'm feeling like the Chinese may not be the only masters of propoganda.
posted by JoshBerman at 5:11 AM on October 25, 2001

one has to get a congressional recommendation for west point. i guess mickey mouse is now in the recruitment dept. I dont mind promotion. but west pointe is a school of attraction rather then promotion.
posted by newnameintown at 9:18 AM on October 25, 2001