The (old) Licquia Family Blog
This is the old blog site, powered by a simple blogging system called Blosxom. It's here to keep old links from breaking, and for whatever historic interest might remain.
Here's the current site.
This is the old blog site, powered by a simple blogging system called Blosxom. It's here to keep old links from breaking, and for whatever historic interest might remain.
Here's the current site.
>From Dean Esmay (who is on a roll, I must say) comes a very interesting first-person account of an American touring in North Korea.
What I found interesting was the scene where the group was taking a tour of a museum containing the gifts to North Korea:
Ever wonder why CNN seems to be the only Western news organization regularly allowed into North Korea? The next room perhaps offered a clue. In the 'Gifts from America' room a whole section of one wall is taken up by gifts from CNN. A few engraved plaques, a coffee cup (yeah, a freaking coffee cup!), a logo ashtray, etc. Probably at most a couple hundred bucks worth of crap that nonetheless get pride of place in the museum - for they reveal obvious signs of respect from a world famous news organization. The people at CNN are certainly using their heads and showing they know how to play the game. Though one wonders how that fits in with journalistic integrity . . .
Now, a coffee cup does not a scandal make. But given CNN's recent admission that they were sucking up to Saddam Hussein for access, should we take it for granted that they aren't doing the same thing in Korea? I don't think so, especially given that the aforementioned traveler in North Korea himself felt moral pressure to not betray the people he had talked to, and this after only a few days in the region with no serious ties or vested interest.
May 11, 2003 | Comments are no longer available