LIFE> Most Viewed
|
LIFE> Most Viewed
|
|
When pointing out blame please stand in front of mirror
By Patrick Whiteley (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-09 10:53 Why does the pot call the kettle black? What hypocrisy because both cooking utensils are covered in soot. I explained the idiom to my colleagues and they were quick to share an old Chinese saying, which carries a similar meaning.
Wu shi bu xiao bai bu (50 steps laughs at 100 steps) is a phrase summarising an ancient parable. Two groups of frightened soldiers retreated from battle and one group rushes back 50 paces while the other unit retreats 100 paces. However the 50-yard group has the audacity to laugh at the 100-yard troops for running away. I am forever amused by the hypocrisy of some self-righteous journalists in the Western media who criticize Chinese newspapers about censorship. Every person in the world is driven by a different personal, political, ideological and sometimes a corporate interest, which affects their way of looking at the world. This is not a good thing or a bad thing. It is what it is. It's impossible for anybody to be truly objective but this does not stop some hypocrites from waving their fingers of blame. US writer Michael Wolff has recently released a book, which features a modern Chinese fairytale romance. The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the secret world of Rupert Murdoch describes how the billionaire media tycoon met his true love Wendi Deng and because Wolff hasn't been sued, we can presume it's true. On a 1998 business trip, Murdoch needed an interpreter and was Shanghai-ed in Shanghai by Yale-educated Wendi, who worked for his Hong Kong TV station. Sparks flew immediately according to the then Star TV CEO Gary Davey, who recalls receiving a morning call from his boss. "You're probably wondering now why Wendi isn't back from vacation. Well, she's with me and chances are she won't be coming back to Star TV," Murdoch said. Wendi's rags-to-riches romance is straight from the pages of a Mills and Boons novel. Jiangsu-born Deng Wendi was the third child of a Guangzhou factory manager and grew up eating noodles and dumplings in South China's booming industrial zone. Today, she is dining with the Tony Blair and Bono from U2. In her teens she couldn't speak English but 10 years later had a Yale MBA and today is a key News Corp executive. She is the epitome of modern China: super smart, hard working, quick thinking and ambitious. Murdoch is another can-do character with burning ambition. After graduating from Oxford University, the Aussie worked on a Fleet Street tabloid, and by age 23, owned his first newspaper. Just like his wife, he wanted so much more. He now owns an empire that was worth $40 billion before the Wall Street crash. Murdoch newspapers are infamous for digging into the private lives of celebrities and hammering the "we-know-best" elitists. So when Murdoch gets married to a much younger woman, the tycoon's enemies, basically the "establishment" presses he doesn't own, went for the jugular and tried to dish the dirt out on his Chinese wife. Their great revelation was young Wendi had a few romantic encounters before meeting Murdoch and claimed she used older men to get ahead in life.
 The establishment press always looked down on Murdoch media for its use of kiss-and-tell subject matter, yet still attack the big guy's wife in the same manner. Wu shi bu xiao bai bu. The Wendi story isn't told often in the Western press, considering Murdoch owns such a large chunk of it. Even his fierce media rivals have also censored themselves on the matter. In 2007, in Australia, a writer claimed Fairfax media company pulled his Deng profile that had been commissioned by one of its editors. Yet journalists from these media groups have the audacity to point the finger of blame at Chinese editors. Wu shi bu xiao bai bu. |
