You know what I like about China? They always keep their eye on the prize. Why, just look at this recent article at Business Insider, which explains how Chinese authorities are cracking down on reality television. Apparently they’re so fed up with all the American-style talent and dating shows that are populating the airwaves and turning their citizens’ brains into slop that they’re going to start limiting the number of hours broadcasters can dedicate to them, and mandate that at least 30 percent of all programming focus on “topics including news, economics, culture and science.”
What a great idea! Unless, like, these new regulations are actually just a pretext to steer people away from sugary mindless entertainment so the government can go back to using the airwaves to fill everyone’s head with some good old fashioned propaganda.
Liu Shanying, a political scientist at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he suspected the new regulations were because the satellite channels were taking too much audience away from the national broadcaster China Central Television.
The administration “is helping CCTV, the TV broadcaster that has the main task of carrying forward the government’s message,” said Liu, who used to work for CCTV. “The local stations have more freedom to attract audiences with entertainment shows. And that takes away too many viewers from CCTV and they are afraid that no one will pay attention to the government’s tune.”
Oh.
