On the Virginia Tech Shooting as It Pertains to China
Many of you have written about the horrific Virginia Tech shootings, and the fallacious rumor that the shooter was Chinese. Here is James Fallows’ take on the Chinese media’s reaction — and the American media’s complicity. Fallows begins:
It was Tuesday night China time when the authorities in Blacksburg, Virginia, identified the gunman as a young Korean. For the previous 12 hours, the worst traits in the Chinese media had been brought out by an even-worse lapse by part of the U.S. media. One — and as far as I can tell, only one — journalist in the U.S. identified the killer publicly and quickly as a student from China who had recently been given his visa in Shanghai. During the long night after the shooting U.S. time, which was daytime Tuesday in China, that report was picked up — surprise! — by Fox news and a few smaller U.S. outlets, and, via web news sites, it quickly made its way to China.
What the Chinese media did next was bad in a predictable way.
For the complete article, click here.
April 20, 2007 at 5:26 am
[...] on Virginia Tech, from the China Blogosphere: Sneed’s original story (h/t James Fallows) China Redux Lost Laowai Useless Tree China Law Blog Danwei Shanghaiist How the World Works Spread the words: [...]