World Cup Non-Coverage in China
[in translation]
Since the beginning of the FIFA World Cup in Germany, something strange is happening in Chinese journalism. Xinhua, CCTV and other official media sent huge teams to Germany, but their news reports are unexciting. Instead, the local or Internet media have scooped some amazing exclusives. For example, when Brazil beat Croatia at 5am on June 14, the Sohu sports page immediately had an exclusive interview with Brazilian star Kaka.
Finally, Xinhua could not stand it anymore and published an article titled "People who are even more awesome (full of shit) than Parreira) to expose the massive fabrications from certain Chinese reporters. The report pointed out that the extent to which Chinese reporters have gone must have astonished even Brazilian trainer Carlos Alberto Parreira.
For example, Franz Beckenbauer must be very busy going from one game to another, but he seems to be interviewed by mainland Chinese media every few days. He does not speak Chinese, but in the Sports Weekly exclusive interview, he can name the individual players on China's national team. Even better yet is the exclusive interview with FIFA chairman Sepp Blatter in Shanghai Youth Daily, in which he came over after the reporter called out his name in a hotel lobby.
Famous football stars such as Luis Figo of Portugal and Francesco Totti of Italy are longstanding good friends of mainland Chinese reporters, according to these reports.
Apart from fabricating exclusive interviews, transplanting is another technique. The June 6 training session for the English team was opened to reporters, and the goalkeeper accidentally bounced the ball off the head of a Japanese television reporter. But Shanghai's Eastern Sports Daily changed the report to read that the ball bounced off her head and the goalkeeper was "heartbroken" and comforted her.
List of fabricated FIFA World Cup News
- Eastern Morning News/Sports Weekly -- Exclusive interview with FIFA World Cup committee chairman Franz Beckenbauer (truth: the reporter does not have a pass)
- Shanghai Youth Daily -- Exclusive interview with FIFA chairman Sepp Blatter (truth: the reporter does not have a pass)
- Beijing Daily -- Exclusive interview with Pele (truth: Pele was not interviewed)
- Hubei Daily News -- Exclusive interview with Luis Figo of Portugal (truth: this was fabricated by a reporter inside China)
- Shanghai Youth Daily -- Exclusive interview with Francesco Totti of Italy (truth: this was fabricated by a reporter inside China)
- Sohu Sports -- Exclusive interview with Kaka of Brazil (truth: this was fabricated by a reporter inside China)
- Eastern Sports Daily -- Hit by ball during English team training session (truth: the ball hit a Japanese reporter)
- Chengdu Evening News -- Victory of Germany triggered traffic accident (truth: no such thing)
Related Link: Reporting on the World Cup, this millennium and last Joel Martinsen, Danwei
