Chinese Bloggers Stage Hoax

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "It seemed like the latest instance of a recurring story: Two Chinese blogs had shut down, apparently the victim of government censorship. 'Within hours, English-language bloggers and Western news media spread the word that the Chinese government had closed the sites,' the Wall Street Journal reports. The BBC spread the word, and its report was picked up by the French free-press group Reporters Without Borders. 'But in this case, it appears the Chinese government wasn't involved, the WSJ reports. 'By Thursday, a day after the shut-downs, the blogs were back up and running. In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think." ' The BBC later corrected its story."

Comments

Re:Boys who cried wolf

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

Let's put that idea in another context, shall we? Let's try before the Mess 'o potamia:

Dictatorships are not high on the chart of things that get the benefit of the doubt. Even if Saddam did not attempt to buy WMDs, we know from hard evidence that he has had WMDs in the past. We know from hard facts that the he has tried repeatedly to get more and we do know from hard evidence that he has tried to hide his activities.

So while I'll give you that the US government should really do some fact checking before picking up the latest intelligence chatter and reporting it as real news... It's not that far fetched that the Iraqi government would be up to some of their pretty old, tried, and true techniques of obtaining weapons not explicitly approved for their consumption.