The International Olympic Committee’s Gag Order
I’ll put my cards on the table: I’m no fan of the Olympics. The bizarre North Korean mass-games style ceremonies, the corruption, the fakey universalist cosmopolitan brotherhood-of-man sentiments, the perpetuation of sports that no one cares about which should have died out long ago… I think the Olympics is to sports as the United Nations is to politics. I grew to like Mitt Romney, but I groaned every time he traded on his experience in doing whatever it was he did for the Olympics. Dude, you’re not helping.
So it is with a certain grim satisfaction that I pass along the secret International Olympic Committee’s media guidelines, dug up by the Wall Street Journal. Basically, they want to make sure you know that these notions you have about “freedom of the press” and “freedom of expression” need to be bottled up, because Beijing wants everything to run smoothly:
Addressing its world-wide members in an internal memo, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, the IOC reiterates its opposition to taking any public stance on controversial Chinese policies, describing them as “sovereign matters outside of our mandate.”
Sure, I can understand the IOC wanting to keep the muzzle on its own members. But how about this part?
The eight-page “briefing kit,” whose existence was made public by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, also calls on national Olympic committees to send athletes who are “in compliance with the Olympic Charter” to the Games.
“Athletes will have total freedom of expression” to answer questions from the media, the memo states.
“However, rules for athletes clearly state that the venues of the Games are not a place for proactive political or religious expression,” the memo says, adding: “In Beijing, sanctions and penalties will be applied in any cases considered to be a breach of IOC policy.”
Did I read that right? Governments are being pressured to pick politically acceptable athletes? And what do they mean by “sanctions and penalties?” That’s a pretty scary notion coming from Beijing:
Fresh ethnic violence has erupted in a Tibetan region of southwestern China, with disputed reports of eight people shot dead by the police, and the Chinese government on Friday vowed swift and severe punishment of Tibetans accused of rioting and taking part in last month’s antigovernment protests.
Police officers fired Thursday evening on a crowd of protesters outside government offices in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province along the border with Tibet. A Tibet activist group said the shooting left eight protesters dead, according to The Associated Press.
You know, it’s funny to be agreeing with lefty moonbats like this guy at the SF Chronic, but once and a while they get something right. And then they manage to say it in a way that alienates patriots across the political spectrum:
It is extremely generous of the Chinese to try to take over the title of most loathsome major power from the seven-time world champion, the United States of America. It has certainly been making all the right mistakes, and its transparent lies have shown the kind of zest and innovation that marked the early years of the Bush administration.
Wow, worse than the United States, eh? That’s the benchmark?
…the Dalai Lama (technically Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama) is extremely well known. …
I’m not sure of much, but I am sure that he’s not organizing death squads. In making that allegation, the Chinese government just looks stupid. In making that allegation while directing its army to put down demonstrations in Lhasa, preventing foreign journalists from traveling there, and jailing and/or killing people who disagree with its policies, the Chinese government looks stupid and criminal and evil.
Indeed, the United States probably gets the sympathy vote here, because at least it’s fighting an enemy with real suicide bombers and real terrorists.
More common ground…he admits the terrorists we’re fighting are real! Correction: in the Bay Area, this guy’s actually a moderate!
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Trackbacks
- PoliGazette » Chinese Kill Eight Tibetans
- International Consent to Chinese Oppression | The TIW Blog
- Lights Out in Paris - Olympic Torch Stumbles Along : Conservative247
- Michelle Malkin » Hillary wants Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies?
- Pro Cynic
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Killing Tibetans and making lots of our consumer goods. It’s Commie-capitalism with a big RED smiley face!
And while they are trying their damndest to shut people up, the offers the opportunity to “others” to pull off another Munich. Nice proirities .
Huh? Biathlon, archery, dressage - what are you talking about?!
The Chinese enjoy a style of capitalism that isn’t burdoned with a moral code.
Why was China chosen for these games? Why are we going there? Even Carter pulled us out of the 1980 Summer games after he grasped that Brezhnev had lied to him (Russians do that sometimes I’m told).
But Bush the II, the Maximum Doofus, I gather is going to China as something, language fails me as to what, to these games. Am I right on that? Please tell me I am wrong.
#5…You’re wrong.
Want to take any bets that some of these officers are on the skeet shooting team.
The people who are into this stuff can find private venues for them. The point is that most of these sports either would not find a market, or already have one. There is no need for any State anywhere to pour any amount of stolen money (i.e. taxe$) into any of these sports. In fact, it is a moral crime to do so. Let them live or die on their own. End of story.
I think that is what MM is saying and in this matter I stand with her 100%.
I think see-dubya is hosting this site, though I’m sure MM is on the same page with this opinion.
lol, i think see-dubya needs a waving flag at the top of his threads.
I feel pretty much the same way the Olympics are a pain to watch, with a bizillion commercials and very little coverage. mostly human interest stories and sight seeing. yawn.
I’ll put my cards on the table: I’m no fan of the Olympics… really?
I was never a fan of the Olympics but it has it’s upsides. 1st there are the athletes, good for them. 2nd, National Pride. Don’t discount this…not only does it dispute the “one-worlders”, it denounces liberalism & socialism. Hey some people do, do better than others! And individual effort is the reason.
To hold a festival of individual competition in the, um, errr, ‘mecca’ of collectivism? Wow. If communism was correct than everyone should get a (plastic) gold medal & go home right?
Oh, the down side… well if they figure out that performance = results, they may just take over the world.
The only events I enjoy are the track events. Kind of how the Greeks played it, I’m quite sure the ancient Greeks never competed in dressage. Sad how politicized the Olympics has become, almost like a caricature of the original intent.
What is the U.S.A’s strategy on China? We never had open trade with the USSR because they were communist douche bags, we don’t trade with Cuba because they still are communist, yet we do so much trade with communist douche bag China that it is nearly imposible to buy ANYTHING that is not made in China.
We boycotted the 1980 games which was a good thing, yet we are going to Bejing to play in 2008. In the words of Louis Black, I am confused, did our leaders watch the South Park episode where the Asian leaders said that we need not feel threatend because they have small penises and we Americans with our enormous penises have nothing to worry about? It makes no sense. They are arming their Billion man army with U.S. dollars, they have sucsessfully shot down a satelite because the understand that they can’t match our technological advantage so any fisrt strike on their part would require knocking out our satelites first, so why do we export our factories and cash to them?
Hey!
Don’t knock DRESSAGE.
Schooling horses and riders in preparation for war maneuvers (light horse, heavy horse, cavalry) is a discipline that we may need in ernest again someday. In the past - the aires (sp) above ground were ment to protect the riders from ground troops. The half pass was used to move ground troops out of the way! Even today - horses are a threatening presence-ask any mounted police group. I could go on and on as to merits of the discipline
Our own cavalry soldiers were the US representatives to the Olympic games until the mid forties when it was-for the most part- disbanded as a war group.
Some see a boring “sport”. I know the long hours to mentally and physically
prepare - not one but TWO athletes to perform as one. Horse and Rider
The only thing worse than the Olympics is having to listen to Bob Costas. That being said…
I am sick to death of the United States being falsely portrayed as the black hat at every opportunity by our own citizens, and our own press. If you don’t like our country, you’re free to leave the first chance you get. And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Is that so different from a Major League sports team sanctioning one of their players when they state something out of line?
you mean, Nekkid?
I’ll probably watch some of the games, if nothing else is on; much preferring the winter games. I suspect the MSM will try to politicize everyone and everything too. Between the sights, athlete stories, commericals, and the politics, an event or 2 might slip in to change the pace of the tv show. Ah, for the days of Jim McKay, et al…
I probably won’t watch any of the games. It used to be a lot more fun for me when the Russians were the pros and the Americans were not in true Olympic fashion. I also like the winter games more myself but always liked the gymnastics portion because I was always in awe of the flips that they can do.
I don’t know why we’re going either but . . .
I’ve never been an Olympics fan …
I do hope enough Olympian medal winners DO speak out against China’s abuse of its people and its environment.
Let’s see if they cut the satcom feed if there’s enough protest.
To the fullest extent possible, real Americans shouldn’t buy anything made in China or made from Chinese components or ingredients *unless there’s absolutely no other choice*
and we desperately need to start electing Congressmen and Senators who will begin to reverse the asset stripping of our infrastructure without imposing Chinese pay, hours, working conditions and environmental fouling on America.
Wonder where the least loathsome major power is? Really.
The pro business wing of the Republican party — that’s the wing that actually decides what the government will do — supports China repression and all.
Democrats (Obama or Clinton) have stronger human rights stands than McCain or Bush. Will that influence your vote?
This article was fascinating in a number of ways:
- It’s fascinating to watch ideology fall by the wayside when suddenly someone’s personal agenda is in play. Suddenly, the liberals are the good guys.
- It’s fascinating watching someone who openly professes to dislike the Olympics then opine on it.
- It’s fascinating to watch people take him seriously.
- But what’s most fascinating is watching someone pretend to be completely oblivious to both past history and present history and act like somehow the host country is ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ because it wants to keep a sports venue a sports venue.
I note for the record that this is the second time the Malkin/HotAir syndicate has come out in favor of turning the Olympics into a gigantic political soap box. Can the blogger honestly believe that the athletes will keep it buttoned up? In the year 2008, when everybody’s just dying for their moment before the TV cameras where they can let it all out?
So, liberals are suddenly the good guys, eh?
Funny, that’s exactly the point I make in On Common Ground.
On April 5th, 2008 at 9:55 am, lgm (#23)said:
PROVE it.
Sadly that this will be the first Olympics that I am going to miss watching, especially the gymnastics and TKD.
(gsp with back turned walking away)
GSP
I heard that! I haven’t watched the Olympics since the `84 games - back before nbc got all moon-batty, and before the games themselves became more pageantry than sport.
Munich was a preview of the hate now in full bloom. Olympic competition IMHO is more about who can escape drug detection in urine.
That’s what makes the Final Four, and the games leading up to it, so exiting. College kids, white and black, playing their hearts out. Go Tar Heels!
Taking a stand and being a demogogue are two different things. Rhetoric is not an action.
No. They are just a typical black liberal and a typical white liberal. What have these two accomplished? They have exposed the democrats for the bigots and racists they are. But that’s all I can come up with.
Hey, they could use footage of tanks rolling over people in Tiannamen Square as an example of what happens when people don’t comply in China.
beenthere said:
So the athletes don’t have to get real jobs and can serve as role models to young people to show that if they too practice real hard they can someday go abroad to perform fellatio on brutal bloody dictators.
DBNinKY said:
Not Glowbama or Clinton themselves (who have done nothing of note), but as for Dems generally speaking, well, Carter/USSR/1980. Red herring fight. Not worth the effort.
The IOC has a long established policy of appeasing dictatorships, all the way back to 1936 in Berlin.
The IOC’s best sport is “polishing the apple”.
Not really. I don’t like the policies of any of them, and it would be hard on my heart to contribute to the collapse of Western civilization.
And I SERIOUSLY doubt liberals are willing to endure the effects of what it would REALLY take for China to make a turn-around on it’s human right policies.
Face it, lgm, your side of the aisle just have the intestinal fortitude or the ambition beyond campaigning for barack or hillary.
A couple of months ago British athletes were told that, if they wanted to compete in the Beijing Olympics, they would have to keep their mouths shut.
We were told that, by giving the Olympics to China, we would be contributing the the opening up of a closed, dictatorial society.
But, in the end, what have we? Quite the reverse. We (or at least our athletes) have to shut up.
I would love to see every one of the USA athletes wearing an Rangzen bracelet…fist in air on the podium! I’ve been wearing mine for a year now and have enlightened quite a few people about the plight of the Tibetan people.
Screw the “sanctions and penalties”.