I did not say Chinese people are dumb. This what the super army of bureaucrats and alike feel about their compatriots here, so access to foreign news media and Internet is heavily restricted as “they could be easily misled”. So, in my Julong Garden (an excellent example of typical old-style Chinese mismanagement), TV channels are restricted but to pacify those hordes of foreigners living here – we need to submit our passport copies for that – we have access to just a couple of foreign channels, being HBO (too much repeat and Hollywood trash but some movies are OK), TV5 (French) and CNN.
Of course I could install an illegal satellite dish as everybody does, but as a law-abiding citizen (joke, of course, I just don’t have time to watch TV) I am forced to stick to CNN and TV5 for news. Now, I feel CNN has gone down in quality coverage. Watching the events in Mumbai and now Gaza, it’s so shallow and repetitive. I think they ran out of journalists (who do something), so they loop whatever 15 seconds of footage they have and blabber and blabber. Ad nauseam. Better to look at TV5 where you see it once in a matter-of-fact way. What’s wrong with CNN lately? Budget cuts?