Washington Post managing editor Philip Bennett tells Hugh Hewitt the People’s Daily of China misquoted him–a possibility I acknowledged in the second sentence of my initial post on this topic last week. Bennett says:

The version published in the People’s Daily includes numerous and important inaccuracies. In many places words and sentences were removed to change the meaning of what I said. In some places words or sentences were invented that I did not say. In one typical example, where I said “China is not a
democracy” the People’s Daily version quoted me as saying “China is not a
democracy either by American standards.” At the same time, comments
critical of China were deleted.

Bennett says the interview was tape recorded, and he released a transcript of his comments regarding whether the U.S. should be the leader of the world. Bennett says the transcript shows his words “were rearranged to express a different view” than he had clearly intended. Take a look and judge for yourself:

People’s Daily version:

Yong Tang: In such sense, do you think America should be the leader of the world?

Bennett: No, I don’t think US should be the leader of the world. My job is helping my readers trying to understand what is happening now. What is happening now is very difficult to understand. The world is very complex. There are various complex forces occurring in it. I don’t think you can imagine a world where one country or one group of people could lead everybody else. I can’t imagine that could happen. I also think it is unhealthy to have one country as the leader of the world. People in other countries don’t want to be led by foreign countries. They may want to have good relations with it or they may want to share with what is good in that country. That is also a sort of colonial question. The world has gone through colonialism and imperialism. We have seen the danger and shortcomings of those systems. If we are heading into another period of imperialism where the US thinks itself as the leader of the area and its interest should prevail over all other interests of its neighbors and others, then I think the world will be in an unhappy period.

What was really said:

Yong Tang: Another question is that since the Washington Post is mainstream media in American how does the newspaper deal with the relations between America and the rest of the world? Do you think America should be the leader of the world?

Bennett: You know I don’t ask myself that question. Again that would be to express a political view, an editorial view, and I…

Yong Tang: How about personal opinion.

Bennett: You know, I don’t…

Yong Tang: First of all I think that America should be the leader.

Bennett: I don’t think in those terms. And I’m not trying to dodge the question. It’s just that my job is to help people try to understand what’s happening now. And what’s happening now is very hard to understand. The world is very complex, there are very complex forces occurring in it. I don’t think you can imagine a world - given where we are with technology, culture, with economics - I don’t think you could imagine a world where one country, where one group of people, lead everybody else. I just can’t imagine that happening. And I think it would be unhealthy if one country - whether or not it was this country or China or France or Great Britain - would describe itself as the leader of the world. People in other countries do not want to be led by a foreign country. They may want to have good relations with them and they may want to share in what’s good about that other country. But that’s almost sort of a colonial question. I feel like we’ve been through an era of colonialism, of imperialism, and we’ve seen the dangers and the shortcomings of those systems. If we are headed into another period of imperialism where either the United States or China, for example, thinks of itself as the leader of its area and where it’s interests should prevail over all others interests of its neighbor or others then I think we are headed for an unhappy period. So I guess that’s how I would answer that question. Maybe the answer is then no I don’t think the United States should be the world leader. But what I really mean to say that I don’t think we are headed into a period of history where one country or one set of ideas is going to dominate all others.

Bennett says the interview includes “numerous and important inaccuracies,” but the small portion of the transcript that he released deals with his response to only one question. It would be helpful to know if he was also misquoted in other instances, such as when he is quoted saying that

- the Bush Administration lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq,
- China is the best place in the world to be a journalist, and
- the Bush Administration is wrong to suggest that democracy is advancing in Iraq.

Bennett can quickly and easily set the record straight by releasing the tape and/or a transcript of the entire interview. I just sent him an e-mail asking him to do so.

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- Washington Post’s Managing Editor Speaks His Mind
- Reacting to Philip Bennett

Update: Although Bennett is distancing himself from the comments attributed to him, not everyone found the reported comments objectionable. My old debating partner Eric Muller, for example, called the reported remarks “mundane” and likened me to Joseph McCarthy for calling attention to them.

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