152 responses so far ↓

• California Doctor

  Feb 6, 2010 at 10:13 am

  

  The “china” and “japan” bashing is starting in the US mainstream media.

  The MSM in the USA is beating on Toyota for at least 30-60 minutes per day per news station. This includes CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC.

  The MSM has really lost credibility. In spite of the rants and the fist pounding rage of hysterical news anchors talking about cars going out of control, the reality is that few people seem to be watching. Even fewer seem to care what their opinions really are.

  The evidence is clear. When CNBC sent their auto industry reporter to a Detroit Toyota dealership, there were very few calls to the service department and no long lines of cars needing repair. The Toyota owners in California are still driving their cars and there is no flood of repair claims as the MSM desired to jam the dealerships.

  For you youngsters born after 1965, you do not recall the Japan bashing in the MSM in the late 1970′s. It was, in fact, the US car companies like Chrysler, GM, and Ford who were pushing their gas guzzling vehicles which made worse MPG in 1980 than they did in 1930. Meanwhile, the sent UAW workers and cameras to Flint to beat on Datsun and Mazda and Toyotas. This was called “Japan bashing” by West Coast academics who correctly surmised that the behavior was propaganda.

  We are seeing much of the same propaganda played out now.

  The only difference is that the existance of the internet and mass media production tools has totally obfuscated the ability of one group or another to dominate the messaging.

  This is a good development for regular people who are just trying to live peaceable lives for themselves. Now, instead of being fed a diet of NYTimes, ABC News “Special Reports”, and BBC World Service; we can tune into PressTV, RTV, MaxKeiser.Com and get a different perspective.

  There is, IMHO, no such thing as “alternative media”. Either it is media or it is not. You can not have “alternative” media. The term is perjorative because the absence of media would be nothing. Therefore, the MSM should probably be referred to as the “paleo-media” and the web-based media should probably be referred to as the “neo-media”.

  Depending upon your confidence, you may want to depend upon the paleo-media. But, a combination of both information sources is more likely to be reflective of the truth. More significantly, the paleo-media are higher in cost and therefore more subject to financial conflicts of interests.
• ewjohnson

  Feb 8, 2010 at 5:28 am

  

  Actually chickens in China are fed standard diets that are pretty much the same as the diets fed to chickens in the USA. The notion of lots of “crazy stuff” in diets is pretty much a myth. Chickens are not fed hormones.

  There is a significant difference in the Chinese chicken and the USA chicken but that difference is related to genetics. The Chinese chicken tends to be selected for the chicken-y flavour of the meat (meat quality) whereas the USA chicken is genetically selected for growth and quantity. The US chicken tends to be whitish in colour, hence the Chinese call it “bai ji” (white chicken). The Chinese chicken preferred by most Chinese cooks tends to be yellow (huang ji).

  The Chinese chicken tastes and smells like the chicken that grandma cooked. The American chicken relatively speaking tastes like styrofoam. That’s OK in the USA because the Americans, being relatively stupid about such matters, neither notices nor cares. Tyson chicken is cheap and that’s all that matters. It costs more money to produce chicken that tastes good.

  There is a sector of the American society willing to pay more for chicken but they are more interested in good taste than in chicken that tastes good. So, sorry Charlie.