While I was in the Philippines, I found out that Chinese State tv is incredibly interesting, informative, thorough and convincing, an amazing propaganda tool: they have the English version on CCTV9 which is what I was watching. I kept wondering if they show thew same in China and to this day I don’t know: there were 14 CCTV channels on the set I had in Guilin, the only place where I turned it on and they were all in Chinese, broadcasting New Year’s Eve Specials. No commercials, it is a throwback to my childhood days when Italian tv used the journalistic standards of the BBC (no longer in use there as well) and a “betterment of the people” approach. Unlike Italian tv of the 70’s though, nothing seems to be off limits, including a one hour special on the international debacle of the Made in China poisonous toys last year (from the lengthy patronizing angle of what’s being done to avoid such incidents in the future, but at least they are discussing it in depth) to talks between China government officials and Dalai Lama envoyes, carried live (this was before the visit to the White House). It is very interesting and unusual for Westerners to see how the Chinese leadership unabashedly, but shrewdlly, promotes its point of view. In contrast to the American propaganda machine, which on soundbytes and a limited message repeated over and over, the Chinese will sicken you with a surfeit of detail, eviscerating endlessly all (seemingly) possible data until one can take no more and changes channel, after a good 15 minutes. And some of the content is very informative, in a way that either by omission or by actual censorship (or “editorial choice”) does not get to Western Newscasts.