Post editor flatters China.(CORRECTION PLEASE!)(Washington Post managing editor Philip Bennett)(Interview)

ITEM: Washington Post managing editor Philip Bennett, in an extended interview with the Communist Chinese newspaper People's Daily published on March 10, had much more praise for the regime in Beijing than he did for the United States.

During the interview, Bennett repeatedly praised freedom of the press in Communist China--asserting that (as translated by the People's Daily) the "Chinese government has recognized the value of having foreign journalists have access to China and write about something good or bad and get as much freedom as the law provides to write stories without fearing retaliation or punishment." He even burbled." "If I were a young journalist today, figuring out where I should go to make my career, I would go to China."

Bennett also claimed that journalism's function in the U.S. is akin to the role of the media in China, proudly saying: "We receive a lot of criticism from the government for presenting views of events which are in odds" with what they are trying to present." He continued (in Beijing's translation): "We have seen that similar roles of the press are developing in China as media expose corruption"

CORRECTION: Though conservatives in the U.S. sometimes have fumed that it is hard to distinguish Washington Post coverage from Communist propaganda, it is still astonishing that Philip Bennett, the Post's managing editor, would boast of the "similar roles of the press" in the United States and China and credit the Communist-controlled media for exposing corruption. It is even more astonishing that he would publicly claim that China enjoys so much freedom of the press that he would want to make his career there if he were a young journalist.

Bennett's remarks, of course, were largely directed to a literally captive Chinese audience, though the English translation also appeared on websites available outside the dictatorship. Bennett may not be quite as explicit in his praise for China when writing or speaking in the United States, but the fact that he would express these views somewhat insulated from an American audience confirms that Post readers should be wary of the kind of "news" they are getting from the Post.

Chinese writers are regularly harassed, detained, and imprisoned for writing about unapproved topics. Also, 47,000 Internet ...