Oh no! China has BANNED OUR BELOVED CARTOON NETWORK! That's pretty extreme, even for a communist regime.
They seem to have a particular issue with Time Warner...First, they banned an edition of Time Magazine, and blocked CNN during the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and they've banned TNT (OH NO, NO NITRO!!!), but the Cartün Natverk? Quoth the Zhonguo Gonghe's Ren himself, "Tamen dou hai renshi tamen ziji zuo de dongxi." Huh? Ni zhen de ma? Bu yi wei ran. As the master says, "Lao ji fu li zhi zai qian li."
A tidbit from Reuters:
A foreign media consultant, who wished to remain anonymous, said Cartoon Network's exile may reflect a move away from overseas children's programs in China.
In October, the government removed children's programming from a list of categories of foreign content that Chinese television stations were permitted to buy for rebroadcast, the consultant said. Sports, music and science made it onto the list.
"Some decision was made along the line not to allow Bugs Bunny in anymore," he said.
The Communist Party's battle for the hearts and minds of its population begins at a very young age.
Recent children's shows have included the likes of "Motherland, I Love You," which features scores of kindergarten-aged children gripping miniature national flags, and responding to questions from the host such as: ``When you think of the motherland, is it more like your mummy or daddy?"
Okay, maybe I'm lacking the other guy's perspective, but if I was one of the people doing this stuff, I'd occasionally flip out over just how FREAKY this stuff is. Please people, enact market reforms and free elections, and let the Cartoon Network spread Snagglepuss and Shaggy to every corner of the great motherland! I mean, if Jiang and Zhu don't start opening things up, China might just find itself left out of a big chunk of the new tech and media economy. Zoinks!
Post 'em if you got 'em
-El Cosmico
mail me atelcosmico@austin.rr.com
