CNN Apologizes to China for Jack Cafferty’s “goons and thugs” Comment
Filed Under Tibet, Human Rights, China | Posted on April 16, 2008
In the April 9 edition of The Situation Room, the following exchange occurred between CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Jack Cafferty:
BLITZER: One of the arguments that some of the pro-China elements is making, Jack, is that this is a very different China today than existed 10 years ago, certainly 20 or 30 years ago. This communist regime today is almost like a capitalist regime. They’re a huge economic superpower and that we have a lot at stake in maintaining this economic relationship with China.
CAFFERTY: Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hawk [sic] to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We also are running hundred of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart.
So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.
(LAUGHTER)
I was watching the program when Cafferty made his remarks and thought they were so insightful and refreshing that I rewound it (I love my DVR) and called my wife in from the other room to hear them replayed.
Cafferty clarified his remarks on the April 14 edition of The Situation Room by saying:
Last week, during a discussion of the controversy surrounding China’s hosting of the Olympic Games, I said that the Chinese are basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they have been for the last 50 years. I was referring to the Chinese government, and not to Chinese people or to Chinese-Americans
Predictably, the remarks hurt China’s feelings and the government demanded an apology. CNN caved in to China’s demand — sort of — by issuing this statement”
CNN would like to clarify that it was not Mr. Cafferty’s, nor CNN’s, intent to cause offense to the Chinese people, and [CNN] would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.
CNN is a network that reports the news in an objective and balanced fashion. However, as part of our coverage we also employ commentators who provide robust opinions that generate debate.
On this occasion Jack was offering his strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people — a point he subsequently clarified on The Situation Room on April 14.
It should be noted that over many years, Jack Cafferty has expressed critical comments on many governments, including the U.S. government and its leaders.
A willingness and freedom to express opinions contrary to the policies and actions of one’s government is something that China clearly does not understand.
I’m not at all clear on why supporters of human rights always feel compelled to clarify that their criticisms of China relate to the Chinese government and not to the Chinese people. In the first place, it seems ridiculously obvious that it’s China’s government and Communist party whose actions are the target of the criticism. In the second place, however, it seems worth noting that recent activities by some Chinese citizens display the same level of goonishness and thuggishness as those of their government. If some Chinese people are actively supporting and defending the brutal policies of their government, it seems to me that they share in the responsibility for those policies, and are therefore subject to the same criticism and condemnation that those policies invoke.
For the record, when I criticize “China” for its human rights atrocities, I’m unapologetically criticizing the government, the Chinese Communist Party, and anyone who supports and defends their actions.
3 Responses to “CNN Apologizes to China for Jack Cafferty’s “goons and thugs” Comment”
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well, i know that the government in US is totally different from the one in my country. but the japanese attacked my country during the World War and it hurts my country a lot. This government is the best choice to save the country and the citizens’ lives. The fact is, the government actually improved the life of it’s citizens’. i think my country is on the same way. i know that this policy somehow fits china, as a chinese, even though it does not fit USA. The situation my country is facing really makes me sad. I would like to say that my country and it’s citizens are always working hard and try to bring happiness to the world. Also, the olympic game is a global activity. We’d better not take any political issues inside that, right?
Besides, tibet is one part of china,and the government invest a lot of money just to feed and free the people there, because they don’t have enough food and were treated as slaves by British government. Most of the people there are actually happy nowadays. Maybe ,some of them feel bad because part of the culture is destroyed by the advanced technology. But everything can’t be perfect. i believe that my country is making progress and i hope everyone in the world can see that and give my motherland best wishes.
A citizen knows how his or her life is approved by the government, especially those who suffered from the war.
hope my words will help you understand China more, a china in it’s citizen’s eye
…maybe lots of spelling mistakes~.hoho,sorry for that ~
Please be awared, most of the Chinese people especially in US hate the government. But they love the nation and the people.