Sunday, February 06, 2011

"Chinese Fighter, Or "Top Gun" Clip?": 50s communist faking technology redux in Youtube era


Video: CCTV Tries to Pass Off ‘Top Gun’ Clip as Military Drill?.

January 28, 2011
The Wall Street Journal

Beijing has lately stepped up its campaign against the country’s “fake news” scourge, with the General Administration of Press and Publications putting pressure on news organizations to dismiss journalists suspected of doctoring their stories. Ironically, the latest example of alleged news fakery comes from China’s own state broadcaster, CCTV.

In a development that could further inflame Hollywood’s frustrations with unauthorized reproduction of its intellectual property in China, Chinese netizens are accusing CCTV of repurposing footage from the movie “Top Gun” for use in a news story about an air force training exercise.

As noted yesterday by the blog Ministry of Tofu, the alleged IPR violation, spotted by Internet user “Liu Yi,” took place during a Jan. 23 evening news broadcast. CCTV has removed the clip in question from its website, but a copy of the broadcast posted on Chinese video sites does reveal some striking similarities:


CCTV typically posts the full evening news broadcast online, along with individual clips of each story, but a check today of the CCTV website for Jan. 23 revealed only the individual clips. The full broadcast is missing and there is no link to the air force training story.

This wouldn’t be the first time Chinese media have been caught appropriating fictional material from the U.S. for use in news. In 2002, the popular Beijing Evening News tabloid translated and published as genuine a satirical news article by The Onion about U.S. Congress threatening to leave Washington D.C. unless the city built them a new building with a retractable roof. Five years later, the state-run Xinhua news agency infamously used an x-ray image of Homer Simpson’s head to illustrate a story about the discovery of a genetic link to multiple sclerosis.

Contacted by China Real Time, a media relations representative in CCTV’s foreign affairs office, Yin Fan, said the broadcaster had no immediate comment on the accusations.

– Josh Chin. Follow him on Twitter @joshchin

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Communist countries love to lie about almost any thing. Communist HUN SEN of Cambodia is the exact same thing. He lies after lies, fake after fake, cheat after cheat. If any citizens dare to speak up about his lying, he will use force to shut down your uprising against him. HUN SEN is good for NOTHING. He is a jungle man who has no education whatsoever. How this man lead a country?

This is how his boss, China and Vietcongs, teach him what to do and this is how communist works!

Anonymous said...

Shame on you China, you guy smart only cheating for the trade but for the technology you guy in copying the west.

Anonymous said...

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? I think CCTV was just using the TOP GUN clip as part of the dramazation of Chengdu J-10 fire powers. It doesn't mean whatever you guys think. There are a lot of Chinese military shows, showing American planes, does that mean Chinese is copying American F-16, F-15, or whatever? Try to read outside of that black square box.

Anonymous said...

Great to see some more Chinese knockoffs of the American brand. If it even meant inserting clips of Top Gun into footage of their air force drills.

Anonymous said...

Are the Khmers able to manufacture imitation of Chip-Ton flip-flops ?
(chinese-made sandals).

Anonymous said...

as everyone in the whole world knows...

China, the great faker.

all fakes, all imitation.

from shoes, to phones, to everything...