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False sense of bravado

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-06 07:55

Let's stop reporting how Chinese people manage to stay calm in a crisis, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

A report described how nervous many Moscow subway passengers were after two explosions on March 29. It even said that a young woman panicked because of the ticking of a fellow passengers' watch.

Another report drew an opposite picture of 13 schoolchildren's stabbing in Nanping, Fujian province. It said teachers and students of the primary school overcame the shock of the deaths to eight students and injuries to five in just one day.

Can we believe such reports, which suggest Chinese kids are mentally stronger than adult Russians? The truth is that the Nanping school teachers and students both are undergoing psychological counseling.

Reports on the Moscow subway bombings and Nanping stabbings are not the only examples of poor journalism. A CCTV4 news report once showed people interviewed in Taiwan saying they couldn't make ends meet if prices of goods increase by more than 4.5 percent. Another report on CCTV1 cited several mainland residents as saying they could cope with inflation of up to 6 percent. There is no reason to believe the price hike report from the mainland. How can workers earning about 1,000 yuan, retired and laid-off workers, and poor families cope with high inflation? How can the media invent such reports? By dishing out such baseless reports, the media cannot make people believe in Chinese people's strength, but rather show how insensitive they could be.

(China Daily 04/06/2010 page9)