Is China, Palestine and Israel America?: Is what you’re shown by government what is, or what some want you to believe, or something else?

The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war
the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture
and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation

These contradictions are not accidental
nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy

They are deliberate exercises in doublethink

George Orwell

In Leaked Lecture, Details of China’s News Cleanups

…October 2003, …the national broadcaster CCTV carried live coverage
…to the instant workers opened the capsule door
to reveal the pale but smiling face of a hero
…and irrefutable evidence that China’s maiden manned space voyage
had gone off without a hitch.

Or had it?

…two weeks ago, a top official at Xinhua, the state news agency,
said that the mission was not so picture perfect.

The official, Xia Lin, described how a design flaw
had exposed the astronaut to excessive G-force pressure during re-entry,
splitting his lip and drenching his face in blood.

Startled but undaunted by Mr. Yang’s appearance,
the workers quickly mopped up the blood,
strapped him back in his seat and shut the door.

Then, with the cameras rolling, the cabin door swung open again,
revealing an unblemished moment of triumph for all the world to see.

…Titled “Understanding Journalistic Protocols for Covering Breaking News,”
the speech was designed to help budding journalists
understand Xinhua’s dual mission:

to give Chinese leaders a fast and accurate picture of current events
and to deftly manipulate that picture for the public
in order to ensure social harmony, and by extension,
the Communist Party’s hold on power.

…Mr. Xia’s journalism lecture,
…included other examples of Xinhua’s handiwork,
most notably coverage of ethnic rioting in the far west of China last summer
that left nearly 200 people dead.

…The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces
 on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara
…was not motivated by peace.

Mr. Xia reportedly explained how Xinhua
concealed the true horror of the unrest,
whose victims were mostly Han Chinese,
for fear that it would set off violence…

…about 100 of those detained from the boats
were carrying immense sums in their pockets
nearly a million Euros in total.

 Uighur rioters burned bus passengers alive, he apparently told the class,
raped women and decapitated children,
displaying their heads on a highway median.

…found on the boat were propaganda clips showing passengers
“injured” by Israeli forces; these videos, however, were filmed during daylight, hours before the nighttime operation occurred.

…organizers of the flotilla repeatedly rejected Israeli offers
to transfer its cargo to Gaza once it was inspected for military contraband.

“…journalism in China is a big show, it’s fabricated,
but in the end it’s all justified for the higher purpose of stability,” Mr. Xiao said.

ANDREW JACOBS
New York Times

Michael B. Oren
Israel’s ambassador to the United States