Mediocre Journalist Cause of China’s Woes
Who would have thought that 5,000 glorious years of history could be derailed by one man, Jack Cafferty. As a New Yorker, I am very familiar with Mr. Cafferty’s relatively undistinguished career, and am thoroughly amazed that this long-time local anchor has managed to send the Chinese Government into a tizzy. Good thing they haven’t heard of Geraldo Rivera yet.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded Tuesday that CNN’s Jack Cafferty apologize for remarks he made last week, in which he called the Chinese “goons and thugs” and said products manufactured in China are “junk.”
“Cafferty used the microphone in his hands to slander China and the Chinese people (and) seriously violated professional ethics of journalism and human conscience,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
This followed the original statement that Cafferty made:
“So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed,” he said. “I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
He issued a clarification of his remarks on Monday’s “Situation Room,” saying that by “goons and thugs,” he meant the Chinese government, not the Chinese people. It was unclear whether China’s Foreign Ministry was aware of the clarification when it held the Tuesday news conference.
It is outrageous that a news reporter would make such outrageous and inflammatory statements. Imagine if a government named called in an incendiary manner like this:
Instead, they have labeled the [him] a “wolf in monk’s clothes” and a “monster with a human face and an animal’s heart.”
Thank goodness the Chinese Government would never stoop to that level! Damn you Jack Cafferty!
[Update below]
This story is a thousand times better than I ever realized. Here is some of the China Daily editorial from today’s paper which is so beyond bizarre, I can’t even begin to tell you:
Many, assumingly including U.S. citizens, are stunned and shocked with such racist and vicious attack without any cover on a group of people. As a matter of fact, in the past years, Chinese people are getting on good terms with a huge number of earth residents, of different color, different language, from different continents.
The newspaper reported that while “earth residents” have an increasingly good relationship with China, Jack Cafferty was having some difficulties. The diatribe continues:
It is rare for the world audience to hear such a blatant discrimination against an ethnic group [my italics, not theirs] of people with such a derogatory connotation. What Cafferty did was using his privilege as a CNN anchor to insult China and slander all Chinese people. He is pathetic to have wantonly violated professional ethics of journalism and lost his conscience.
And here’s the truth. As I’ve mentioned before, the propaganda machine is trying to blur the line between Chinese people and the government. Wake up, they are not the same!
Additional highlights:
an amateur anchor blasted out Chinese people…
It is rare for the world audience to hear such a blatant discrimination against an ethnic group of people with such a derogatory connotation. What Cafferty did was using his privilege as a CNN anchor to insult China and slander all Chinese people. He is pathetic to have wantonly violated professional ethics of journalism and lost his conscience…
…attacking Chinese people, is nothing but showing its rudeness, arrogance, ignorance and hostility towards China…
..[The Chinese people] have stood firmly behind the Chinese government and fought back the twisting journalists with one big voice: Stop doing it!
Um, doesn’t “amateur” mean unpaid? And didn’t he make it clear he was talking about the government? It’s like beating your head against a wall.
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Rhys responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am →
Yeah - agreed. The Chinese Government is really emabarrassing itself. It should have far more dignity than to demand an apology from an idiot reporter in another country. Imagine the American Government demanding an apology from Al-Jazeera. Or the BBC.
I can’t believe I just said that. That is in no way a compliment to the current American administration.
Larry responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm →
You should read about the reaction of the Boao chairman reacting to ta flame bait about Taiwan’s membership. It’s even more entertaining because the irritating question was intentional so.
I guess they all have the same media handling training - show your authority, get mad, get angry, get ridiculous.
Matthew Stinson responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm →
One of the things these incidents speak to is the inability of the Chinese government to speak diplomatically when confronted with criticism. Slamming Cafferty doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, but calling the Speaker of the House “disgusting” is a massive breach of the traditional discourse. On bad days it seems like most of China’s foreign policy hands are unreconstructed Maoists.
Lu responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm →
“And didn’t he make it clear he was talking about the government?”
From the transcript I read here, he didn’t. He talked first about ‘China’ and then about ‘they’, now you can take that to mean the Chinese government, but you can just as easily take it to mean ‘China’, and in extension ‘all Chinese people’. If he meant ‘the Chinese government’, he should have said so. As an anchorman (?) for one of the world’s biggest news stations you’d hope he’d know better than that.
Josh responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 6:43 pm →
@Lu
I’ve watched his broadcasts. The man is not exactly Mensa material.
I responds:
Posted: April 19th, 2008 at 11:42 pm →
My apology to Jack Cafferty and CNN
I think Jack Cafferty is basically the same goon and thug he has been for the last 50 years. He behaved exactly like such a goon and thug on April 9 when he faked as a commentator during a junky show on poisonous CNN.
I am aware of concerns about my comments related to Jack Cafferty and CNN in the context of his foregone stupid mouth exercise and CNN’s circus shows, which I just made a moment ago.
I would like to clarify that it was not my intent to cause offense to Jack Cafferty and CNN, and would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.
I am a person that reports the news in an objective and balanced fashion. However, as part of my coverage I also employ myself as a commentator who provides robust opinions that generate debate.
On this occasion I was offering my strongly held opinion of Jack Cafferty and CNN, not the American people, not all US news organizations – a point I am clarifying immediately after I made the comments.
It should be noted that over many years, I have expressed critical comments on many people and many news organizations, including the American people and its leaders, and American news organizations and their managers.