News reporting should be fair and balanced
In the past years as China Daily's correspondent first in New York and now in Washington, I have taken time to interview those American China hands that have spent their lives working on China and relations between China and the United States.
Most of them have had rich and fascinating lives, to which a one-hour interview can rarely do justice. However regrettable, this is the reality facing many journalists who are increasingly being asked to do more with less.
On Tuesday, I received a handwritten letter from a veteran China hand I profiled lately. I thought it might be to point out errors in the story. Instead, he expressed his appreciation for the factual coverage, and lamented the fact that US journalism these days prefers "gotcha" stories; editors won't like a draft unless the reporters say negative or critical things.
