China's Gold Medal Spin

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In a scathing review of the Chinese government's handling of the Olympics, Jacquelin Magnay writes "there has been the fake singer, the fake fireworks, the fake minority kids (they were all Han, and not from the 55 different ethnic groups as portrayed), the fake press freedoms, fake internet access, fake promises. ... Beijing Olympic vice-president Wang Wei and other International Olympic Committee officials repeatedly claim the press is free to report on the Olympic Games, yet venue managers, under instruction from the organisers, will not allow reporters to ask topical non-sporting questions of Georgian or Russian athletes. Transcripts of the press conference questions about censorship are themselves heavily censored." But, regardless of the edicts from the Chinese government's propaganda unit, "global headlines ... have detailed the screech of armoured personnel carriers, human rights issues, visa restrictions, protest parks, military thuggery, deceptions and trickery."