Obama Talks Internet Freedom, China Censors 312
eldavojohn writes "In a town-hall-style Q&A with (hand-picked) Chinese students in Shanghai, President Obama made several statements knocking China's firewall and censorship. Quoting: 'I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity. And so I've always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I'm a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States that I discussed before, and I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet — or unrestricted Internet access — is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged.' The Washington Post notes that the event was broadcast only on the local level, and in fact Chinese authorities removed from view what little coverage it had gotten, after about an hour. But at least American news media are gobbling it up."
Whitehouse.gov (Score:4, Informative)
They're streaming this speech, and historically China has not blocked this domain. So, provided there are curious Chinese citizens who are aware of the visit they have a way to hear directly what was said.
Re:we'll see (Score:4, Informative)
I believe that five other american networks did say that, by refusing a white house press conference from which Fox News had been blocked.
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:2, Informative)
The AC above above is a race-baiting bigot, but one should publish correct facts to avoid leaving their statistics on the wall.
Historically, African-Americans have voted Democrat 88-92% of the time, and sometimes as high as 95%. Going into the 2008 election, any Democratic candidate could expect to get that much. Obama, by pulling 96% of the black vote, at most pulled a couple of percent that he might not have gotten if he'd been white. And even then, it's not obvious that Hilary wouldn't have also gotten 96%, given Bill's popularity with African-Americans, and the current Republican party's outright pandering to racists and white supremacists.
Fact check. Really removed from view? (Score:5, Informative)
Really removed from view? A quick check on the chinese newspapers, here for example todays Shanghai Daily, proves different:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=419690&type=Opinion
"Many of the students asked questions in English about Obama's views on Internet censorship, global leadership and Taiwan....
Re:Anti-censorship, huh? (Score:5, Informative)
He's done absolutely nothing that he said he would do, and in fact has been even *worse* than Bushco regarding midnight bills, etc. So why is the media not lighting a bonfire under his feet?
Absolutely nothing? Not lighting a bonfire?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/ [politifact.com]
The Obameter Scorecard
Promise Kept: 54
Compromise: 14
Promise Broken: 7
Stalled: 17
In the Works: 149
Not yet rated: 274
Feel free to read the about page [politifact.com]
The Truth-O-Meter [politifact.com] is good fun too.
Every day it tracks the veracity of statements by public figures & politicians.
Re:we'll see (Score:5, Informative)
NPR/PBS, reliant as they are mostly on voluntary public donations, is a mere shadow of the legislatively-created and taxpayer funded BBC in the UK (or the Australian equivalent, ABC, for that matter). A poor cousin at best. You can't compare them like that, it's chalk and cheese quality-wise.
Not many people see PBS as a high quality or popular channel in the US. But, in Australia the ABC is one of the most-watched and best-quality networks (and has multiple channels in most areas). Ditto with the UK and the BBC.
Re:we'll see (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah same with the ABC in Australia. Accusations of bias occasionally get flung its way (let's face it, it's an easy target being government-funded), but any empirical study will show it's easily the most balanced and fair of all the TV/radio networks. Indeed, most accusations are usually of the "you are too biased AGAINST the current government, rather than for it" nature.
The Australian ABC/British BBC/Canadian CBC really do a top notch job of providing free, quality programming and journalism. It's a real shame the US doesn't have an equivalent (and no PBS do not count ... having seen their stations in a number of US markets, they are nowhere near as good).
Re:we'll see (Score:2, Informative)
Reading is not your forte', is it? The person above you just said the White House wanted to hod a press conference without FOX being there. It's also worth noting that when Obama did his "tour" of Sunday morning programs he appeared on every network except FOX.
"right wing of republicans" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AEt180Wnls [youtube.com]
white house slams fox - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ntf0mqdhQ [youtube.com]
ABC report on war against fox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVPXBfB7LZo [youtube.com]
ABC,NBC,CBS,CNN Refuse Administrations Request To Block Fox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yMshqX6vBM [youtube.com]
I could post a lot more videos, but of course you'll reject all them.
I swear Liberals are more religious and faith-based than christians.
Re:Score card is meaningless (Score:5, Informative)
For all the anguish and hysteria over Bush and his so called allegiance to big business, at least Bush wasn't just handing money to Wall Street.
Ahem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008 [wikipedia.org]
On October 1, 2008, the Senate debated and voted on an amendment to H.R. 1424, which substituted a newly revised version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the language of H.R. 1424. The Senate accepted the amendment and passed the entire amended bill, voting 74-25. Additional unrelated provisions added an estimated $150 billion to the cost of the package and increased the size of the bill to 451 pages. The amended version of H.R. 1424 was sent to the House for consideration, and on October 3, the House voted 263-171 to enact the bill into law. President Bush signed the bill into law within hours of its congressional enactment, creating a $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program to purchase failing bank assets.
Re:we'll see (Score:3, Informative)
Interesting that only Fox claims that they were excluded from interviewing a politician. The other news organizations would have had a field day if the White House actually censored Fox News from participating.
Fox News is not a newscast, it's an opinion network that they misrepresent as news. They misuse and misquote sources, they use fake footage, they instigate crowds, host fake 'tea parties', misrepresent laws etc. etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rqdtZlec0s [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS1NWYV1i_E [youtube.com]
I believe any organization would be right to exclude Fox from press conferences and interviews because they are not reporters, they are not neutral, they are not a newscast.
Re:Anti-censorship, huh? (Score:2, Informative)
Perhaps you're not from the US and don't understand how its government works. I'll assume either that you or failed civics class as a child. This country has 3 branches of government. They are designed to have equal power. They provide checks and balances on each other.
A simplistic view of the three branches would be:
Legislative - They make the laws. (Article 1 of the US Constitution)
Executive - They enforce the laws. (Article 2 of the US Constitution)
Judicial - They decide if the enforcement matched law. (Article 3 of the US Constitution)
President Obama has power over the Executive branch.
> And putting legislation online at least five days before it's voted on.
He doesn't put legislation online. He's the leader of the EXECUTIVE branch of government. The LEGISLATIVE branch (not his branch) is responsible for stuff like, you know, legislation. They would be the ones who should put legislation online.
>And allowing congressmen enough time to read legislation rather than ramming it down their throats at 2am.
He doesn't control congressmen. That's not his branch of government. Complain about someone else who actually controls that please.
>And ending backroom politics.
This may be a perfectly valid complaint. It would have been nice if you'd been specific and cited an example though.
>And get rid of the lobbyists - though perhaps I misheard him on that one and he actually said "I promise to hire as many
>lobbyists and absolute freaks and weirdos into my administration as I possibly can".
I think he would argue that people he hired were the best people for the job. Until it can be shown that the way he executes the law of the land is being mishandled due to the people he hired to advise him, I would hold my judgement. Personally I dislike the idea of corporate interests being able to pay for someone to influence my leaders. However, in a free society I don't see how you can prevent lobbyists.
Re:we'll see (Score:3, Informative)
It's funded by the licence fee, yes. But the government has no control over the BBC's content - it operates independently, and there is a separate BBC trust to oversee it, again independent from government. Its charter requires that it be independent from both private and government influence.
Re:we'll see (Score:2, Informative)
The difference is Glenn Beck has video evidence of Van Joanes saying he's communist, or Anita Dunn saying her favorite philosopher is Dictator Mao, or Obama telling SEIU (in 2004) that he wants to see government take-over health care completely.
Do you have any video evidence of Beck raping a girl?
Furthermore, what the hell is wrong with asking questions? As the Founder of the Demcoratic Party said, "Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." What he said of God also applies to our leaders. Question boldly. This is OUR government and our right as a free people. What surprises me is that Beck seems to be the only one on TV doing it.