Chinese protest CNN for Cafferty remarks
By Jonathan Landreth
April 19, 2008
RELATED:CNN: China comments not meant to offend
The finger pointing continued in the run up to the Beijing Olympics Saturday as hundreds of ethnic Chinese shouted “Liar” in front of CNN’s Los Angeles office, demanding a “sincere apology” from political commentator Jack Cafferty for calling Chinese “goons and thugs.”
“No Chinese Negative News” and “Certainly Not Neutral” read banners held high along with the flags of the United States, China and Taiwan. A crowd of about 500 gathered by 10 a.m. on all four corners of a Sunset Blvd intersection. Police said they were taken by surprise.
The protest came after recent events in Tibet, where anti-Chinese unrest broke out on March 14. Since then, Chinese state-run media has called Nobel Peace Laureate the Dalai Lama a terrorist and accused Western media, which has been barred from open reporting in Tibet, of unbalanced coverage.
Lin Chen, who learned about the protest on popular Chinese-language web portal Sina.com, left his home at 7 a.m. and drove here from San Diego. The native of Tianjin, the port city nearest Beijing, has worked for years as an engineer at Qualcomm.
“I know both worlds, English media and Chinese media. I believe there is an anti-China frenzy in America today,” said Chen, 44, who has raised two pre-teens in the U.S.
“I came not for myself but for my son and daughter. They will live forever in the U.S. and I cannot tolerate this discrimination from a major news organization,” Chen said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded Tuesday that CNN’s Cafferty apologize for remarks he made last week, in which he called the Chinese “goons and thugs” and said products manufactured in China are “junk.”
“Cafferty used the microphone in his hands to slander China and the Chinese people (and) seriously violated professional ethics of journalism and human conscience,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Jiang said Cafferty’s remarks “reflected his arrogance, ignorance and hostility towards the Chinese people, ignited indignation of Chinese (at) home and abroad and will be condemned by those who safeguard justice around the world.”
CNN is barred from broadcast in China except into luxury hotels and exclusive residence compounds.
In response CNN issued a statement saying: “We are aware of concerns about Jack Cafferty’s comments related to China in the context of the upcoming Olympics...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 said in a report on its web site that it 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.
At the protest Saturday, Ke Ping, a Chinese filmmaker who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years and is a graduate of the UCLA Film School said that as a naturalized American citizen she certainly took advantage of freedom of speech here.
“I encourage more open speech in China,” where she acknowledged such a protest against a news organization would not be allowed to take place.
http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=8197414&nav=menu612_2_7
SoCal protesters target CNN over China remarks
Associated Press - April 19, 2008 4:24 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Chinese-Americans have staged a protest outside the CNN office in Hollywood. They want the news network to fire commentator Jack Cafferty for making what the protesters call insulting remarks about Chinese people.
Police say 2,000 to 5,000 people gathered outside the CNN building for about 2 1/2 hours this morning. The event was peaceful and no arrests were made.
About two dozen people also demonstrated outside CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
Some Chinese-Americans are upset about comments Cafferty made earlier this month where he called Chinese imports “junk” and said Chinese leaders were “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
Cafferty later said he was discussing China’s government, not its people.
China has been in the spotlight as it prepares to host the summer Olympics. Criticism of its human rights record and unrest in Tibet have received widespread coverage, leading Chinese leaders to accuse Western media of smearing the country.
I would look at him very closely. He is probably stealing technology secrets. There I said it. And I'm probably right. The Chinese are educated people. They know what cafferty said. Those who are protesting are there for a reason--To undermine the United States when and where ever they can. They pledge allegance to China first.