Compare China/Bush's Handling News Media & Natural Disasters Like Katrina

[KittyWampus]

Not just the incompetence and LIES about the death toll due to a natural duster but how both governments engage in fictional accounts fed to the media to cover their incompetence up. And how they both wish to punish any news media or CITIZENS that dissent and reports the actual, damning facts.

Category 4 typhoon Saomai hit eastern coast of China on August 10th. An area populated by fishing villages.

"Official" government report of deaths was 17 and touted its successful handling of the incident.

However, Chinese news media began to be skeptical with Chinese Newsweek estimating 900 boats lost at sea with each having at least 2 crew members.

So that is at LEAST 1800 in one single area.

"One fisherman said told one Chinese magazine 'he saw bodies floating in the bay for several days as he searched for his brother'".

"During events like these it often seems that the Chinese authorities are at war with the news, or even with the truth itself."

"Weeks after the storm, local residents complained bitterly that the vice premier had been led by local officials to a village where damage was minimal, wittingly or not, participating in a masquerade."

"In a further indication of official concerns, a foreign reporter's visit to the site was interrupted by a video camera-wielding crew of local propaganda officials who stopped his tour and escorted him out of the province."

"Earlier this year, the country's State Council.. approved a law that would assess large fines against 'news media that violate the regulations and release reports about the situation regarding management of sudden incidents.'"

Just this week, China announced new regulations prohibiting foreign news organizations from distributing news, photos or graphics in China, and warning them against reports that 'endanger national security'

"In the case of Typhoon Saomai, it was the Chinese news media themselves that confronted, however tentatively, the fictional picture of a monster storm masterfully handled."

"'This tragedy won't make our hearts turn cold: it's the lack of government performance that will,' said a fisherman who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing dangers to anyone who dared talk about the storm's toll, even a month later.

"'This is the consistent style of the Chinese government,'he said. 'Big or small problems are suppressed as much as possible. They have no courage to face any of them.'".