China's CCTV network gets little sympathy after hotel fire

[Coventina]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Beijing -- Even before it was revealed Tuesday that an unauthorized fireworks display organized by China Central Television caused the spectacular fire that destroyed one of Beijing's new glass-and-steel landmarks, the state-run broadcaster was already the subject of its own firestorm on the Internet.

The inferno at CCTV's new, still-unoccupied headquarters complex laid bare simmering anger and resentment toward the network both for spending public money on grand construction projects and for continuing to broadcast government propaganda.


"As long as there aren't any injuries, let it burn. They don't need so many buildings the first place," wrote one typical anonymous poster at the popular news portal Sohu.com. "CCTV enjoys too much luxury already. They will always have enough buildings, even though this building is down."

Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of a website that tracks Chinese media, said that among China's young, educated and urban, the stodgy network has long been a subject of ridicule, both for its low production values and its propagandistic news coverage.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-beijing-fire11-2009feb11,0,6561766.story

[Dappleganger]

1. Karma.

[AlexDeLarge]

2. My thoughts exactly!

[jberryhill]

3. ...or maybe Karma had some help /nt

[durablend]

4. Chinese arm of Faux News? n/t