censorship

one of my questions about traveling to china was the amount of censorship. was i going to be able to stay up with international news? i had heard the bbc news website was blocked and i was worried about my favorite news source, the new york times. go ahead, call me a bleeding heart liberal. when i arrived, my worries were soothed quickly. nytimes.com was up and running, without any modifications at all. i could even access articles on china, which is more you can say for the bbc website. i am well connected, and very happy to be away from the american news machine.

this morning my dad sent me this image. (again, if you click on it, it's a little bit clearer.) it is a comparison of this week's newsweek covers between europe, asia, latin america, and the us. the first three headlines are "losing afghanistan", the last one is "my life in pictures" a story about annie liebowitz. very interesting. now, i'm no conspiracy theorist who is arguing that the government made newsweek change the cover in defiance of the first amendment. i'm a corporate news theorist. i believe in their quest to sensastionalize the news and make it play the way they want it, they are selling the average american (or whoever reads the news...) up the river. it makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

now read this quick...i'm not sure how long the american censors will let it in to the united states. you know how they feel about bad news.