{"id":25266,"date":"2019-12-07T12:44:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T17:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=25266"},"modified":"2019-11-27T09:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T14:23:01","slug":"new-york-times-cnn-and-apple-speak-truth-to-power-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/07\/new-york-times-cnn-and-apple-speak-truth-to-power-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times, CNN, and Apple speak truth to power in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My visit to China coincided with the peak of the “2019 Hong Kong protests”<\/a>. How did the U.S.-owned media outlets available in China cover the story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple keeps it simple, whether roaming on LTE, using hotel WiFi, or a VPN:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The company is brave enough to attack shareholders who object to “green initiatives” (Tim Cook speech at MIT<\/a>) and voters in Indiana and Arkansas (“Guy with a \u201cWhites Only\u201d sign in his conference room tells others not to discriminate”<\/a>). The CEO is also brave enough to fly a rainbow flag<\/a> (but not the Taiwanese flag on the iOS keyboard or in text displayed in China<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about the New York Times<\/em>? My hotel offered a local print version at breakfast. Our brave fourth estate provided readers in China with a half page about books being reshuffled in a library in Idaho, a column on how much tax they’d pay on tampons if they were to travel to Germany, and some material on Puerto Rico, a Siberian island, and Israel (must be true since it is written by a guy smart enough to marry the daughter of a billionaire<\/a>). There was no mention of anything unusual going on in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n