The US state apparatus did not make a big deal of this. The media and the public did, and the US state apparatus answered to the media and the public, as is their duty.
Their job isn't to respond to every current outrage in the media cycle. That's why we have a representative democracy and not a full direct democracy. They're to be held accountable for their overall performance every few years, and in the interim are supposed to be resilient to the short term ebbs and flows of public sentiment (which are fickle and can be manipulated) and do what's actually good for the people in the long run.
Cancelling / postponing (whatever it will be) Blinken's visit to China does seem like a big deal.
> SIMON: This trip was supposed to happen this weekend, right?
> KELEMEN: Yeah. I mean, we were planning to fly out last night. We had our visas in hand and our bags sort of packed. So this was very last minute. Though Blinken had been raising concerns with the Chinese about this balloon since Wednesday, when pictures started appearing on social media of this thing way far up in the sky over Montana.
My interpretation is that this move was likely forced by the public furor, which I posit was organic and driven primarily by the media and the public, rather than driven by the US government as the comment I replied to suggests.
[1]: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/04/1154473950/u-s-cancels-blinke...
It's all political posturing. Look into the history of if you are allowed to take a photo with a handshake or not in political photographs. It's just part of the game to ensure you still have power or relevance,
No, the state feeds the media what it wants to see reported. They can share what they want and they can hide what they want from the media.
The majority leadershio of the House are not “state apparatus”? Because they were the main source fanning a big deal out of it.