The text of the e-mail I received from my Canadian podcasting partner-in-crime, Matt Adams:
hi,
a friend of mine is in China for business and he listens to the podcast I do with Keith Gottschalk ( “I read the news today oh boy” ). He wrote me a note that IRTN is banned content in China. weird but interesting.
a snippet from his email:
“So, as y’all might know, there are some issues with freedom of expression here in china, and this extends to the internet as well… well, turns out that i can not access Matt’s rabble.ca podcast (I Read The News Today, Oh Boy)…. yup, you’ve been classified as unwelcome content…
for the record, the general rabble.ca site can be accessed… Talking Points Memo is OK, but www.bobharris.com is also blocked…”
Matt
You have to hand it to the Chinese - there must be hordes of functionaries constantly combing the Internet for any sign of “Western decadence” or some such that the Chinese people must not be allowed to hear.
And they found our little podcast. I am so honored to be singled out as a National Security Threat to the Chinese Quasi-Communist Government. At least give the Chinese credit for that - they’re pretty overt in letting people know they’re a threat. The US and Canadian governments keep you guessing whether you’re on some such list or another - or not.
This leads me to the whole Olympic issue which I’ll deal with briefly.
I pay no attention whatsoever to the Olympic Games. Never have, never will. As long as sport is used in way that encourages jingoistic nationalism - ours or anyone else’s - I could care less about it. Hitler in 1936 was just the most overt example of the trend. The Communists and the US used the games as some sort of sick showcase - if our athletes were better than yours, than our society was better than yours.
Count me out.
And the fact the IOC gave the games to the Chinese is about as odious an example as you can get. The ought to ring the running track with the bodies of dead Tibetians (?) if the Chinese are so proud of what they have done.
The Chinese state is a brutal and repressive regime that the US (also a repressive regime in other ways, more subtle but still effective), plays footsie with due to their slavish devotion to the almighty dollar.
Again, count me out.
When they have an Olympics in a truly neutral site, say Switzerland, and the athletes compete without having to wave their country’s flags and mumble their national anthems at award ceremonies, then I might care.
Back to the original subject - if you want to strike a blow for freedom of speech, listen to our podcast, highlighted twice above. It’s entertaining AND informative - wow, what a concept!
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