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Propaganda arm

Xinhua, as a state-controlled news agency, is a controversial one which is accused of photo manipulation, rumors etc. and known in the outside world as a propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China. I made this edit in the lead [1] to make it clear, but it was reverted by Quigley (talk · contribs) with this edit summary.

Note the general consensus in media related articles is that if the media organization generates much controversy, that should be reflected in the lead. For example, the article MSNBC mentions in the lead that it is accused of leftist bias, the article Fox News Channel mentions in the lead that it is accused of conservative bias. So I think it is completely appropriate, necessary and NPOV to mention Xinhua is a propaganda arm in the lead. I use two reputed reliable sources for this claim: The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. --Reference Desker (talk) 02:10, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Xinhua is controversial to those who hate the Chinese regime for one reason or another. Most of the time, it is treated as a normal state-controlled news agency. And I don't know about any instance of photo manipulation from Xinhua, but I do recall an incident wherein outfits such as the BBC and CNN published a photo of Nepalese police beating Tibetan-Nepalese while describing it as a scene of Chinese police beating Tibetan-Chinese. The point is that newspapers (or cable networks) make mistakes all the time, even in the same direction, and usually get away with a correction. Fox News is a mess of an article that has gone through many sui generis discussions, so it is not something to emulate; MSNBC is probably a tit-for-tat from Fox. However, most articles for news organizations do not say that "some people accuse this network of being propaganda for x", much less what you wrote, which is "this network is propaganda for x". "Propaganda arm" does not reflect Xinhua's self-identification or presentation, and does nothing to promote understanding of the subject. A better approach than calling names would be to find sources that put what you think are substandard journalism practices in the appropriate context (i.e., not make this article a coatrack of accusations) up for discussion. Quigley (talk) 19:24, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
Your comment shows your personal bias. WP and WSJ are respected sources, so the references are fine. --Reference Desker (talk) 09:58, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
Because it is referenced, it can stay within the article as a summary of a viewpoint, NOT as a presentation of what you think "what it is" (I've seen that nonsensical, bullshit line elsewhere...). The propaganda accusation should not be in the lede, and certainly NOT in the first sentence. We already have a credibility section, and I believe THAT is the appropriate placement. However, placing it so prominently in the lede makes it clear what you are here for: to push your POV, and more gravely, in an undue manner. —HXL's Roundtable and Record 23:00, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

This article seems to suffer from a number of deficiencies, and I'm glad that someone is seeking to remedy them. That Xinhua is a mouthpiece or propaganda vehicle for the Communist Party is not a matter of opinion; it reflect the journalistic and scholarly consensus. Moreover, while Xinhua may not call itself a "propaganda arm," it does fall under the purview of China's Propaganda Department (as it is called in Chinese), and of the State Council Information Office. Bear in mind that the term 'propaganda' does not necessarily bear pejorative connotations. In any case, our job here is not to describe Xinhua in the way that Li Changchun might find fitting; it is to describe it for what it is, and that is a propaganda arm, charged with presenting news in the manner that the Communist Party wants it presented. On another note, I wonder why it is not mentioned at all in this article that Xinhua has had a rather important role in the PRC's oversea espionage efforts over the years. The Canadian intelligence agency produced a report on Xinhua's relationship with the United Front Work Department in conducting espionage and perception management work in pre-unification Hong Kong here. I would also be interested in seeing a better explanation of Xinhua's role within the vast propaganda bureaucracy, such as the chains of command, the way that ideological messages are ordered and disseminated, and so on. This is a rather ambitious task, but for anyone who is interested in it, I might suggest starting with David Shambaugh's very even-handed explanation of the structure and functions of this bureaucracy [2]. Homunculus (duihua) 02:42, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Remedy them? Reference Desker is one of the most notorious serial POV pushers (Most of the edits I make do not pertain to politics) who has not had a block on his record, and certainly has not displayed interest in anything of what you suggested in your second paragraph above. Besides that, again, I would have less of a concern if you were to add that to the credibility section, not the lede. In the lede, I think the mention that it is state-controlled, which we already have, is enough inference to the reader that it is considered to be a propaganda arm. Yes the term 'propaganda' is not all pejorative but to the majority of the public, it has mostly negative connotation. —HXL's Roundtable and Record 10:45, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Let's use a fair and balanced source for this wildly true claim, Xinhua News Agency.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/china-propaganda-chief-tells-press-to-innovate-xinhua-says.html The People’s Daily should focus on editorials as they showcase its ideological leanings, the official news agency said, citing Liu as he toured the newspaper today. Editorials should be “timely and relevant” and “help set the agenda in the public opinion,” he said, as cited by Xinhua.

So if Xinhua is to be itself believed then it has an agenda to set and if it is not believed then this is no doubt because it has an agenda to set, right? Hcobb (talk) 16:39, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Xinhua News Agency/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

This article has a good start, but it needs more information from more angles. As the largest news agency in China, it is definitely of high importance. --Danaman5 01:43, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 01:43, 8 January 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 10:59, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

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