China space mission story hits Web before launch | World | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle — So who wins with this story? The folks who promote the idea that we never landed on the moon.
A news story describing a successful launch of China’s long-awaited space mission and including detailed dialogue between astronauts launched on the Internet today, hours before the rocket had even left the ground.
The country’s official news agency Xinhua posted the article on its Web site today, and remained there for much of the day before it was taken down.
A staffer from the Xinhuanet.com Web site who answered the phone said the posting of the article was a “technical error” by a technician. The staffer refused to give his name as is common among Chinese officials.
Found by Aric Mackey.
Just the opposite. Clearly you can’t cover all your bases when you fake such things. Now try that in a country full of rabid, foam-spewing reporters and wanabees.
RBG
I watched Nixon’s prepared televised speech about the deaths of the Apollo 11 astronauts. Extracts are included in The Shadow of the Moon, by Ron Howard.
Probably the same sort of tyros that work in our regional papers – though, you’d think Xinhuanet would have a waiting list for local talent being just about the oldest news service in China.
I’ve been following things through coverage in France and Oz – the Aussies in particular have done a detailed runup to the launch and beyond.
Bon voyage. Nice to see new faces with the courage for these endeavors.
Oh this is a true story, alright. Just not of this earth. It happened on that “other” earth, opposite the sun. Ya know, the one we can’t see. On brother earth, the chinese do it. But I guess the news of it just got rerouted to the wrong ears.
I disagree: I think this adds a hint of skepticism to a topic involving the Chinese… which often invite skepticism. Their belief in sudo-science makes me distrust anything reported out of that country regarding legitimate science.
Or, have we already forgotten their claims to have both remove the smog and stop the rain during the Olympics.
Now that’s some exotic fromage!
#5 – James Hill – Their belief in sudo-science makes me distrust anything reported out of that country regarding legitimate science.
But having a population who believe in creationism and a book of tales is perfectly okay?
This seems no different to me than the media center who published an early obituary of Steve Jobs by mistake. Sometimes reports of events are written in anticipation of the event itself; could it not be the same sort of mistake? I know there was dialogue written but I can’t imagine it’s the only report to ever embellish the drama of something.
A faked news story, a few fake passports, lead in painted toys, and a problem with melamine tainting milk to artifically inflate protein quality tests.
This seems usual and customary from authoritarian regimes.
All cultures can benefit from ethics training, including ours.
Just as the Americans makes their news stories.
Nothing new here, John.