Reoriented links to one in a series of articles by Joan Maltese about what it's like to work for China Central Television's English-language news service. Good stuff, even if it's from the hair-raising newsmax.

One thing management has provided is a mission: to make our employer, the central government, look good.

That�s why �Your first window on China� always affords a sunny view. When a British tourist was murdered near the Great Wall, CCTV-9 knew nothing about it...

When an enterprising intern who also worked as a translator and interpreter wanted to do an expos� on China�s woefully unsupervised translation and interpretation business, she was told to forget it. "Why would you want foreigners to know about this problem?" demanded those in charge. The irony seems lost on them that this method of making China look good is simply exposing the country as a joke...

The overall message driven in week after week is that because we are broadcasting to foreigners, there is only so much propaganda we can get away with. Therefore, we should discuss certain of China�s problems and, crucially, show that China is handling them just fine.

That�s how a mass poisoning case in Nanjing turns out to be all about the party�s conscientiousness. "Authorities are doing all they can,� we lead, �to save the food-poison victims."...

The story does not reveal that 42 people died.

And as she writes, the "news" the Chinese get is even more tightly controlled. If you don't believe it, see what Reoriented wrote earlier about the mainland reporting of the Article 23 debacle:

In almost every instance, Article 23 is portrayed as essential for China's security...

(edited for spelling). So it's not quite as easy for mainlanders to be influenced as some Westerners suggest. Oh, and here's another version of Joan's remarks.