-US sinking into vortex of self-destruction
-Hersh story on US sabotage still resonates
-Ohio train crash still toxic and topical
-Yet more bad news from US
-China blooms with happiness and peace
-Digital boom with Xi's blessing
But first, a look at the damage the US inflicts on others.
For a full week now, Seymour Hersh has made the day's top news on China's Xinwen Lianbo.
Today, the findings in his Substack piece are supplemented by an interview.
China and Russia are allied in their outrage about US sabotage and perfidy as described by Hersh in his Nord Stream story.
Jeffery Sachs, an American public intellectual, weighs in, lending credibility to the claims made by Hersh.
Gunnar Beck, a member of the EU Assembly from Germany, is likewise outraged and indignant:
"In the West, nobody wants to touch the story..."
After a week's worth of ocean bubble pictures, CCTV finds some new angles to illustrate the Nord Stream story. It has a deep stock of pipeline footage. It's in-house stove-top shots of gas burners have been featured for over half a year now to illustrate European energy woes.
The US is blamed for inflicting damage in Syria that exceeds that of the quake
Damascus handlers scramble to script for the visiting CCTV crew angry victim voices to blame the US for stealing oil and inflicting sanctions:
"We are so cold we burn our furniture because of the US"
At least the camera crew got some heartfelt shots
In contrast to the cruel American capitalists, socialist China has been quick to deliver unconditional aid, aid packages carefully labelled so as not to be mistaken for aid from elsewhere.
The "conflict" about which China feigns neutrality rages on.
(Battle images courtesy of Moscow)
Ukraine fights back.
But as any good CCTV viewer should know by now, the real source of the conflict is not Moscow but Brussels.
As Putin aide Dmitry Peskov has been pointing out for almost a year now, NATO and the US provoked Russia into defending itself.
It's Western weapons that are stoking the fires and fanning the flames.
And, as this German blogger from Hamburg eloquently points out, NATO is containing Russia to expand its own influence, that's why the US and NATO keep pouring aid into Ukraine.
And Martin is hardly alone. Germany is up in arms about Ukraine getting weapons to defend itself.
France is livid and can't get out of NATO fast enough.
The train wreck, fire and toxic spill in Ohio gets intense coverage from CCTV for the ninth day in a row because China is a humanitarian country and they really care.
It's so sad to see the US up in flames.
To tighten the screws, CCTV finds a human interest story that will move viewers to tears.
See the chicken coop? The chickens have not been doing well.
It's so sad.
The disaster zone footage is not CCTV's, but they love it so much they've been paying royalties to air every day for over a week.
The US is practically post-apocalyptic now.
As this former fire chief from Ohio says:
"It looks like nuclear winter out there..."
The footage taken by US camera crews is suitably grim, but who would have thought it would play to such acclaim in China?
(Chinese viewers don't usually get to see industrial accidents on TV, and it 's not because they don't happen)
But wait! There's more disaster footage coming in from the US, that erstwhile rival now sunk in deep decline.
A truck turned over in Arizona and it's been leaking very creepy looking fumes.
(CCTV airs the horrifying footage twice to drive home the point, whatever the point is)
And that's pretty much how the international news concludes, but let's go back and look at China's domestic report to see how it covers itself.
One of the big domestic stories is "China in bloom"
There's also a credible story about China's digital technology followed by an incredible explanation.
China is using hi-tech in the classroom.
Nice.
But what's the inspiration for this sudden scientific awakening?
Oh, so that's it.
This modest man is not just "the" Chairman, but also "the" teacher to the nation's pupils.
Must be a pretty good teacher to come up with all these gadgets and an adoring population.
CCTV says 100% of all schools in China are wired and 99.9 % have broadband.
(Makes you wonder about the one-tenth of one percent who got shafted)
The testimonials for the Chairman's national strategy and his repeated call to struggle roll in.
note: Even old people can benefit from digital advances.
If you like the struggle that brought you digital, you'll love the communist party.
And to close today's domestic news, there's a brilliantly filmed segment on Tibet. What's it about?
Getting more Han Chinese to visit of course.
The photo-ops and selfie spots are amazing.
Let the tour busses make their rounds
"more and more tourists all the time..."
The accommodations are separate but equal.
It's all thanks to the "Travel+" initiative of the Beijing authorities. It's good for the local economy because it makes use of all that wasted land.
If it looks pretty, you can thank CCP policy for that.
As party member Wang Jingcai says,
"We know how to stimulate mass consumption."
Digital plus Tibet. What a day. I love you China.
Thank you and good night!
CCTV FOLLIES 2.17 See the world as Xi sees it
-Admirers of China from Mideastern nations gather to learn more about the "spirit of the 20th party congress"
China's good Arab friends dutifully take notes, attempting to grasp the essence of Xi Jinping thought, riveted with inspiration while three Chinese officials ramble off the standard rhetoric.
But the big foreign news story today is from Moscow where Volodin Vyacheslav Victorovich, head of Russia's "democratic" Duma, accuses the US of blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline
-Non-Western Modernization in bloom
-Flowers a' blossom in the fair land
-The party led by Xi is the answer
-Hersh Nord Stream story still big
-US terrorism
-Ohio still burning (in dated footage)
-Florida on fire (lavish fresh footage
In a surprise cold open, the first person shown in the news tonight is not Xi but a foreigner!
Of course Xi's name opened the program, and the story is about Xi and how Xi is making China prosperous:
"A new look for the regional economy"
The "new look" is what the news is all about.
CCTV's mission is to show the world as Xi sees it, to see his "accomplishments" as he would like to them to be seen.
What does Xi's non-Western modernization look like?
It's container ports
It's fast trains
It's high tech displays
What a week it's been for staid state TV in China!
From "Brick in the Wall" Roger Waters to "Crap on the Wall" Seymour Hersh
This story leads international news today. Hersh has been in the news daily for over a week now. This "crappy" update on his self-published Substack gets tender loving care from CCTV producers.
In CCTV's desire to underline the importance of what they think Hersh is saying, they highlight a random section of the the text posted on his Substack account.
-US sanctions are worse than the earthquake
-US is a pit of fire, smoke and toxic chemicals
-US gun violence runs amok
-US is a terrorist nation and should pay reparations
No matter what CCTV's talented news team finds in the field, the earthquake coverage is rewritten in Beijing to conclude that US sanctions are the real cause of suffering.
This is especially true in Syria where the government handlers helpfully find people in distress who also say the root cause of suffering is sanctions.
Tractors plow fertile fields
Flowers blossom everywhere
Mist hovers over winding rivers and streams...
and a VIP motorcade can be seen mounting the hills
Xi's Tibet
A big propaganda film on Tibet is about to drop on CCTV. Here's a sneak preview. The pictures are pretty, the production values good, but the truth value is surely open to question.
Happy people dancing all the time.
In other news, China is making great strides in energy production..