Hating on the New York Times: Part II

I came upon this in a book I'm reading entitled, In The Jaws of the Dragon: America's Fate in the Coming Era of Chinese Hegemony. American journalism takes, in general, a decidedly forgiving pro-China stance in its reporting, such as support of China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, despite the countries' heavily protectionist trade policies.

The New York Times, on April 24, 1994, published an article that painted this picture of China's growing freedoms:

"At one reception I asked a provincial official how he had become so well informed about what is happening in Europe and the United States. 'I watch CNN, the same as you.' he explained. Some 100 million Chinese, many there say, now have access to TV programs transmitted by satellite. 'Ten years ago,' the official added, 'I could have been arrested for owning a satellite dish.'"

The author noted: "The vast middle class now forming in China almost assures the triumph of democracy and its freedoms....Capitalism is nothing more than democracy of the marketplace - the right of people to make their own decisions about economic matters. Once a free market system is established it is but a short step to political democracy."

The New York Times, though, failed completely in fact-checking the article. Satellite dishes had not been legalized, and are still not legalized. Aside from a few privileged government departments and tourist hotels, use of a satellite dish runs up an astronomical $6000 fine. Astronomical, because this fine is three times the per capita GDP of China in 2006.

They never retracted the story or issued a correction. Further, perhaps because the article is so blatantly propagandistic in retrospect, the article can no longer be found in the newspaper's archives or Lexis Nexis. The author's only means of obtaining the article was a hard-copy of the paper at a library.