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China Announces Launch-Success Details — Before Launch
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Sep 25, 2008 06:43 PM
from the china's-government-!-china dept.
from the china's-government-!-china dept.
Ironsides writes "After faking the fireworks at the Olympics this year, one would have thought China had learned their lesson. Now, it appears they announced the success of their manned space mission before liftoff even occured, complete with dialogue."
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What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing like a guaranteed success
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
They are going to hire Michael Jackson to train their astronauts to avoid that problem.
Parent
Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, and the obituary of every major public figure has already been written as well. Such prep pieces are responsible practice for newspapers that have to be ready on-the-spot.
This wasn't one of those pieces. This was an entire narrative complete with faked dialogue and details, such as being complete ahead of schedule. This wasn't preparation -- this was deception.
Unfortunately, lately we seem to have absolutely no room to talk, given the practices of our own "You-have-to-give-me-700-billion-dollars-right-now-no-questions-asked-or-there-will-be-disaster" government.
Parent
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, and the obituary of every major public figure has already been written as well. Such prep pieces are responsible practice for newspapers that have to be ready on-the-spot.
This wasn't one of those pieces. This was an entire narrative complete with faked dialogue
Yes, it was one of those pieces. You'll find that lots of news agencies have prep obituaries with "faked" messages of condolences. It helps to structure the article if there's dummy content in there. They are removed and replaced with the real messages once the real condolence messages are made.
The same happened here. The "faked" dialogue was nothing more than dummy text.
Parent
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Any major news company does this kind of thing if there's a big event coming that they know about; it's just part of being prepared.
You can just imagine how it went down - ask an intern to draft a victorious announcement. Jazz it up with some dialogue, use your imagination, etc. Sure, posting it ahead of time was pretty dumb, but hardly the huge conspiracy of deception that the summary makes it out to be - how exactly could you fake a successful rocket launch, anyway? Or more so - hide an explosive failure?
Ridiculous. It's much ado about nothing. I bet this happens every day.
And as for the "fake fireworks", I have another revelation for everyone - did you see that man who ran in the air all around the stadium? See him? Well, prepare to have your mind blown. Are you ready? Sure you're really ready? OK, get this:
He wasn't really flying!
Parent
Re:Thank you, Captain Obvious. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, THEY didn't, your media outlet did.
How did you watch the games, by Chinese broadcast, or by your own country's broadcaster? I watched the intro on Australian, Canadian and American networks and got different views of the opening ceremonies.
One of those even bothered to point out that the footsteps were taped beforehand and given to the outlets as pre-made footage to be played.
Parent
Re:Thank you, Captain Obvious. (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps you wrote your reply in advance, not reading what you replied to, and accidentally posted it.
Parent
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
They use rorem ipsum instead.
Parent
Re:Yes, but this wasn't a prep piece (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes you think the dialogue and details were faked rather than scripted? I mean, in a country with no free speech, you can tell your astronauts precisely what they are going to say and do. It makes writing the press announcements ahead of time quite reasonable. If someone deviates, you kill them. It discourages the rest. Really, it's all quite efficient.
Parent
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Funny)
That's far too reasonable. Surely China is simply preparing for it's fake moon landing program, to show it's just as advanced as the US in fake space programs. Eveyrone knows the moon landings were really filmed in a soundstage on Mars!
Parent
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Interesting)
even though i think China crossed the line here, i have to point out that comparing similar incidences/practices is not delusional at all. Chinese media writing the news before it happens can be compared with US media writing the news before it happens.
besides, the whole purpose of the comparison is to show people like yourself and the GP that China and the U.S. aren't as different as you think. the U.S. isn't as morally righteous and incorruptible as most nationalistic Americans claim. no society is perfect, just as no society is completely bad.
believe it or not, Chinese people are human beings too, just as we are. because of that, we share many of the same flaws and make many of the same mistakes. you two act like we're talking about a different species or something. what, you don't think America could ever have anything in common with China?
the Cold War is over buddy. grow up.
Parent
Re:What's next, a fake moon walk? (Score:5, Insightful)
i happen to be ethnically Chinese (1.5th generation immigrant from Taiwan), and i can tell you that you're still missing the point--and making a complete ass of yourself.
the U.S. has nothing in common with China?
let's see, China has a market economy, and so does the U.S. ...
China has an army, navy, air force, police force and fire fighters, as does the U.S.
China has McDonalds--hrmm... i think the U.S. has that too.
China has hosted the Olympics, and what a coincidence, so has the U.S.
China exports tons of weapons, just as the U.S. does.
China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and so has--oh wait, nope, you're right about that one.
but neither China nor the U.S. recognize Taiwan as an independent country.*
China imports a shit ton of oil each year, so does the U.S.
Chinese government leaders are corrupt, so are U.S. leaders.
China has nationalists and dissidents, so does the U.S.
China has a privileged elite and a disenfranchised poor, so does the U.S.
China has membership in the IMF, just as the U.S. does.
China has a stock market, just as the U.S. does.
and you're accusing other people of being deluded?
*-being Taiwanese and my Dad being very pro-Taiwanese independence, i was raised to despise China. but even i wouldn't make such blatant hyperboles and blanket generalizations about China.
as i said, grow up. and learn to stop viewing the world in black & whites.
Parent
I can't wait. (Score:5, Funny)
It looks like we'll be seeing $2 time machines imported from China any day now....
Re:I can't wait. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Shenzhou 11: Base this is Shenzhou 11. Shenzhou has landed. Jesus H. Christ Base, We're on the fucking moon. Over.
Base: Roger, Shenzhou, we copy you. We cannot believe you are on the fucking moon. Repeat: Cannot fucking believe it. Over.
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the narration of one of those horrible 80s space pornos.
Parent
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
"Did these people go to a regular journalism school, or some kind of Bizarro-world journalism school where they teach a combination of news writing and creative writing?"
Close, they got internships at Fox Networks.
Parent
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Also leaked (Score:5, Funny)
Take your melamine pills and put your helmet on
Parent
Timezone thing? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but because of timezones, it's already tomorrow over there, right?
Re:In other news, steve jobs is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I'd be surprised if Xinhua hadn't written both success and failure [wikisource.org] stories weeks ago.
Seriously, people — it's a common gaffe, not an evil Communist plot.
Parent
Re:And tomorrow they'll announce (Score:5, Funny)
You didn't get the memo?
That announcement was yesterday.
Parent
Re:And tomorrow they'll announce (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Funny stuff. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Not really news, happens all the time, everywhe (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, newspapers print extracts from speeches politicians haven't yet given all the time - because they're scripted days in advance and, these days, intentionally provided to the press.
If you look at the 'dialog' in the story it's really nothing of the sort. It's canned phrases. Just like, as someone already noted, "One small step..." So there's obviously some phrases that it is known will be used during a successful launch, so the journalist can take a short cut in writing a story about it...
All major news outlets have pre-written obituaries for just about every major celebrity who's vaguely within range of snuffing it. Every few months there's a 'controversy' when one of 'em gets mistakenly published. I don't really see any difference to that...
Parent