Chinese censorship and Movie Updates
Every day there is a new major news story and by the time you are done reading this article, you will have learned about some of the more important ones that have made the news today. Of course, as with anything else, there are some things that are newsworthy which are not necessarily newsworthy in the traditional sense. Take for example the recent Sony email hack which brought about a lot of negative publicity to the company. But did this particular event really affect the ticket sales for The Interview?
In the days following the hack many media outlets, including the BBC, CNN, and USA Today ran articles reporting on the contents of the so called emails. Many people who read these reports were confused by what they read. In many instances the news report was quoting anonymous sources which given the context I guess were the hackers themselves. Still, some seemed to be confused as to why the news reports were saying anything about the movie being canceled at the same time as it was still on the market. Was the news media trying to give the public an update on The Interview or was this just another case of the Chinese government putting out a false news release in order to muddy the public’s perception of the situation?
In this article we will explore a different possibility. Maybe the news media has simply gotten too good at writing about Hollywood gossip. Whatever the reason, if you read these news stories every single day you can understand how the stories get spun. Now this is not to say that the hacks don’t have a point, their point is to create buzz. So maybe the only way to cancel the movie is if the Chinese government comes to some sort of agreement and cancels all tickets?
This could very well be the case, although it would be interesting to see what the Chinese government would have to say about this. If this rumor gets back to the press, they will have to come out with a news release saying that no one can go to the movies because everyone had bought tickets already. This would cause a panic and create more buzz around the movie. But if the Chinese government tells them no one can go to the movies then I figure they would take the news release seriously and cancel all the theater showings.
Now then, it is possible that the news media made up the whole news story and if that is the case then the Chinese government may very well have a point. It is also possible that no one wants to go see The Interview and that is why they are canceling all the showings. But the movie goes on, and now the media is trying to change people’s opinions and news reports about The Interview. And in a few days everyone will know that the Chinese didn’t cancel the movie, they just changed the name and location of the movie to avoid any trademark infringement suits from the United States.
There are two sides to a story and if someone is going to write a news movie update, they need to do it accurately. They also need to be realistic. One cannot take everyone’s word for it because no one really wants to be called a spy. That term upsets some people and that is why it is called spy. Please consider all this in 2021.