Does anyone watch CCTV International ---CCTV 9?

Blanc le Blanc   Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:55 pm GMT
Why on earth would anyone outside China watch CCTV? Its no secret Chinese media is notoriously distorted and censored. Why would I waste my time seeing things from a purely Chinese viewpoint when I could rather watch unbiased coverage from BBC or CNN (although I know the US news channels can be a bit biased too).
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:31 pm GMT
The BBC is not totally immune from bias, you know - be it political bias (in certain quarters at least) or quite a hitherto general anti-American stance much of the time, but already the latter is now changing quite noticeably towards the more positive, obviously in anticipation of things to come.

The latest news on Mr Obama's plans for the Guantanamo situation certainly seems to be assisting in the colouring the BBC's views on the actions of America, and optimistic expressions like "a new pin" and "a new broom sweeps clean" are being bandied about in the hallowed corridors of The Beeb, or "Auntie" as the BBC was once called by all and sundry in its more staid days of the earlier years of its existence - it was notorious for being incredibly stuffy and ultra conservative back then. Now it's more liberal than the Glastonbury pop festival.
Blanc le Blanc   Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:21 pm GMT
Damian, its no exaggeration to say that the majority of the world has slowly veered towards an anti-american stance in the past few years, mostly on account of the bullying and disastrous foreign policy of George Dubya Bush. But yes things have improved massively in the past few months. In my experience, BBC and Sky seem to be quite impartial in political matters. In fact, I get the feeling that the BBC anchors go out of their way to screw the government, given the slightest chance (in interviews, etc).
US channels are very strongly aligned on political lines, which I find very annoying. Fox is strongly Republican, and there are other channels on the Democratic side, and so on.
Shuimo   Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:17 pm GMT
<<Blanc le Blanc Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:55 pm GMT
Why on earth would anyone outside China watch CCTV? Its no secret Chinese media is notoriously distorted and censored. Why would I waste my time seeing things from a purely Chinese viewpoint when I could rather watch unbiased coverage from BBC or CNN (although I know the US news channels can be a bit biased too). >>

You have to watch CCTV just because the Chinese standpoint is important to the well-being of the world today!
LOL
Invité d'honneur   Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:31 pm GMT
I get a number of news channel through ADSL TV.
I like Euronews mainly because I can switch between English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Despite French being my native language, I love to watch the English version of France 24. I like its newsreaders' English accents more than the BBC 24 newsreaders'. I don't know, to me there is something too solemn in the latter.
When I want to hear about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I love to switch from Guysen TV (an Israeli Francophone channel) to Al Jazeera back and forth. Not surprisingly both channels seem to humanize one side more than the other. Al Jazeera is also interesting in that it covers sub-saharan Africa more than Western channels.
I watched CCTV French only once. They were getting into a lot of technical details about boat propulsion in lake rowing. I'm sure this kind of show has its audience... But I shouldn't judge the channel based on one program. ;-)
Robin Michael   Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:42 am GMT
Have you ever watched "Allo Allo". I believe they are even producing a version in Germany. There is a French Policeman who has got a particularly amusing accent. I am trying hard to recall it, but he manages to mangle English in a particularly French way.

'Allo 'Allo! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'Allo 'Allo! was a long-running British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody on Secret Army and was ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Allo_'Allo! - 106k - Cached - Similar pages
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:40 am GMT
Good moaning!

Good for the Germans...well done! Contrary to popular (mostly British!) belief the Germans really do have a sense of humour...their own variety, of course!

Obviously they realise that "'Allo! 'Allo!" doesn't just take the piss out of the Germans alone - the French, the Italians and, most of all, the British themselves as well, all get a comic roasting in one way or another in this old 1970s - 1990s TV series which is constantly being shown at some time or another on one UK TV channel or another...some of the original cast are now floating on clouds up above us now, sadly.

Self mockery and deprecation is a British artform after all...I reckon we Brits send ourselves up more than do any other nationality.

The accents situation in this series is quite complex -

Basically* - all the actors and actresses are British who play various characters who are either German or French...and in one case - Italian.

Scene: A village in German occupied northern France during WW2
Set mostly in a cafe run by Rene and his wife....and two waitresses...all French
The occupying military are German, of course.
The British characters are spies who have secretly flown across the Channel from England, landed in the area and now operating under cover and unknown by the Germans.

One such is the British army officer by the name of Crabtree who poses as a French police offcer (gendarme) - in full (supposedly) authentic police uniform - and played by actor Arthur Bostrom. Why Crabtree took on this hazardous venture heaven only knows as his spoken French was dire, as every episode shows, and it always causes either amusement or irritation in Rene and all the other French characters. The only way this mangling of the French Language can only be respresented by the mangling of the English vocabulary.

My favourite Officer Crabtree remark was when he called into the cafe (as he does every day - several times) and said, in exactly the same kind of assumed French accent, in spoken English, many British people like to portray when mimicking a French person.

"Good moaning! I was just pissing by the cafe when I thought I would drip in and have a chit with you!"

Of course the whole program is a farcical send up. No way would an Officer Crabtree have lasted more than two minutes in a real situation back then in wartime occupied France where many hundreds of British spies operated under cover along with their "Underground - Maquis " French counterparts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DrAp5gzdqc

*Basically - that word is used very often in the UK by people who start to give their opinion or point of view on any given issue. It is very irritating to some people - not me though. I couldn't give a tadpole's tit so long as I get the information I require.
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:46 am GMT
***The only way this mangling of the French Language can only be respresented by the mangling of the English vocabulary***

Just as I did there! Phrased very badly - try this instead:

"The only way this mangling of the French Language can be represented is by a similar mangling of the English Language".

That's what happens when you don't proofread before pressing the vital send button.

Btw does this weird film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" appeal to you? Well, at least Brad is in it....but only looks like the real Brad in bits....