From IndyRobin and GeekLove, a video on blatant media bias:

   As IndyRobin notes at Shakesville:

Reading through the comments and want you to know that this video was NOT just about sexism ... it is about

Character assassination:
[it] is an intentional attempt to influence the portrayal or reputation of a particular person, whether living or a historical personage, in such a way as to cause others to develop an extremely negative, unethical or unappealing perception of him or her. By its nature, it involves deliberate exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person. For living individuals, this can cause the target to be rejected by his or her community, family, or members of his or her living or work environment. Such acts are typically very difficult to reverse or rectify, therefore the process is likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can be life-long and more, or for historical personages, last for many centuries after their death

I think most of us even reasonably aware of the world around us know by now that the Chinese government isn’t terribly enamored of protests, much less those protestors who have the gall to show up, live and in color, and suggest that perhaps the government has made a bad decision. More than simple annoyance, the Chinese Powers That Be tend to react with violence, and captured protestors have a nasty habit of disappearing for some time.

So it is no little surprise that Chinese officials got a little miffed over French protests during the Olympic torch relay in Paris yesterday. From all reports I’ve read, the icing on the cake was the banner hung outside Paris’ City Hall – a banner claiming support of human rights, hung there by French officials.

While many regret that the athletes’ bus had to suffer the slings and arrows (or at least eggs and soda cans) of outrageous fortune, I have to wonder what the International Olympic Committee thought they were doing when they awarded the games to Beijing. If an ill wind bodes no good, and the human rights wind out of China is almost universally acknowledged to be ill, then what good could come of it? Do the members of the Committee lack thumbs to prick when something wicked approaches? Do they also lack all common sense?   

More after the jump... »