Meanwhile, in Beijing...

[steepholm]

I realise this isn't the most important aspect of the affair, but isn't it strange that the BBC can't seem to refer to the Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng without sticking the word "blind" in front of his name? I mean, his blindness is there in the suite of things that one might mention when introducing Chen to an audience ignorant of his existence, but why bring it up every time, when it's not a material element of his case? The Beeb leaves a fixation on Abu Hamza's hook to the tabloids, but blindness seems to be a different matter.

Meanwhile, hypermetropic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected in China soon to hold talks with myopic Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and State Councillor Dai Bingguo, of astigmatism fame.

Comments

[lamentables]

I'd been wondering about that. I initially thought that they meant activist-for-the-blind, and then that there was some pertinent activism connection because it has been stressed so much.

[steepholm]

Yes, I made the same mistake!

[kalypso]

I think it's because his name hasn't quite hit instant recognition status yet, so they're trying to remind listeners that this is the Chinese dissident activist who isn't the artist Chinese dissident activist we were talking about a week or so back or that other Chinese dissident activist who was mentioned recently but I can't remember anything about. Ai Weiwei may just have got past the stage of needing his tag; Chen Guangcheng might be there by the end of this week but his name isn't tripping off my tongue yet. But when they say "blind" I immediately call up "guy who looks a bit like a sixties popstar" whereas for Ai Weiwei I can summon "jolly-looking guy with beard and ceramic sunflower seeds". The other tag they could use is "barefoot lawyer" but I think that would puzzle UK listeners.

[kalypso]

I keep meaning to say that Eddie Mair of PM probably reads your journal, because he managed to introduce a report on Chen Guangcheng the other day without any reference to blindness - he introduced him as "the activist who's been in the news for the last few days". The correspondent filing the story also avoided mentioning blindness until he was discussing why Chen kept changing his mind - he suggested that it might have been one factor, along with not being able to make phone calls, adding to Chen's sense of isolation inside the US Embassy. The Six O'Clock News reverted to form with "blind activist".

[steepholm]

Eddie Mair is always one step ahead! (And not just because he obviously reads me journal.)

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I think most news outlets want to say black President Obama, but can't. So it all comes out at the next salience they can find. (I mean this half-seriously: no one ever stops thinking about the fact that he's black, whether in wonder or in hatred. With Chen they can think about something similar, and mainly with wonder, even those who think of Obama with hatred; as for Stephen Hawking, there's probably a lot of revulsion mixed in with the admiration.)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

But, but....being blind makes him 'brave' and much more of a campaigner because he's so much more admirable than mere mortals.

Saints preserve us from being labelled 'brave' and identified by a condition and I should know!

[ewein2412]

yeah, this bugs me too. I haven't exactly put my finger on why.

"the female hypermetropic secretary of state Hilary Clinton..."

[larryhammer]

American news media are doing the same thing with that adjective.

---L.