Mike Royko`s recent column deploring the news coverage of the events in China by the Cuban media is another example of the self-righteous outrage displayed by the American media in their coverage of Chinese government action.
Dan Rather is on the verge of tears as he decribes the ”massacre”;
the New York Times urges President Bush to express outrage more forcefully;
and Mike Royko jumps on yet another bandwagon by denouncing the People`s Republic of China. The general tenor of the American news coverage is biased to give an excessively favorable presentation of the ”pro-democracy” student movement. In weeks of reading newspapers, I have yet to see a negative story about these students. Why is this?
It is because the American society has a vested interest in the weakening of communism. This is true in respect to all socialist countries; it is true for China. Events such as the recent crushing of the student movement are at worst a mixed blessing for us. On the one hand we must shed a pious tear for democracy, but more importantly, the events can be used as a valuable propaganda tool for this country, both internationally and domestically, as a means to promote the dominant ideology of our society, capitalism.
