The reality is that there were kids in the van and they were trying to help a wounded journalist.
1,637 karma · joined February 26, 2009
It matters because it misrepresents the trade deficit, which is a sensitive political issue. As the article points out, the real U.S. trade deficit with China may actually be 30% lower while the trade deficit with Japan may actually be 25% higher.
"At exactly the time when U.S. government secrecy is at an all-time high, the institutions ostensibly responsible for investigation, oversight and exposure have failed. The American media are largely co-opted, and their few remaining vestiges of real investigative journalism are crippled by financial constraints...
The need for independent leaks and whistle-blowing exposures is particularly acute now because, at exactly the same time that investigative journalism has collapsed, public and private efforts to manipulate public opinion have proliferated. This is exemplified by the type of public opinion management campaign detailed by the above-referenced CIA Report, the Pentagon's TV propaganda program exposed in 2008, and the ways in which private interests covertly pay and control supposedly "independent political commentators" to participate in our public debates and shape public opinion."
There are differences of course, but they are both instances in which the government feels threatened by the power of information that the Internet gives the individual.
"Thanks to him, chumbys are $2 cheaper which frees up more money for us consumers to spend on $2 coffees at Starbucks."
"China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020."
"Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China."