We hear a lot about how China censors its news and limits Google searches and all that.

But when we look at their top news site (Xinhua) and compare it to, say, one of our top news sites (CNN) we see who really is not getting the full picture.

Let’s take a look.  Here’s the Xinhua home page:

And here is the CNN home page:

Now I know you probably can’t read the stories on these teensy graphics (just go to the sites, however), so I’ve removed all of the advertising, gossip, sensational news stories, and other cruft.  Let’s take a look again:

China:

USA:

So, when you think about who is being censored, consider that a market-based system really isn’t so hot for communicating important news to a population.  You can substitute Xinhua with BBC and the results will be exactly the same.

So while CNN users can read about Madonna’s latest baby, or about some grisly murder, Xinhua’s are getting a far more complete picture of the world, from the Korean conflict, to Bush’s latest things, to Blair, to Israel, to Thailand’s coup.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 9:15 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.