CCTV FOLLIES 8.13 Victory over the flood!

With the successful conclusion of the CCP's courageous battle against the flood (and public opinion) CCTV turns its languid gaze elsewhere. Hawaii is the big story today. Russia blasts away as usual.

The time and resources devoted to the detailed, visually rich report from Hawaii that follows below is truly impressive but simply would not be available if anything of any interest was happening in China. As it turns out, camera-shy, paramount leader Xi has taken a few days off, so nothing much is happening there (on a “good” day, his eminence dominates the news and can account for more than half of the news time)

CCTV breezes through the light domestic news section, focusing mainly on the successful conclusion of the CCP's successful battle against the flood (and public opinion) and after a few puff pieces about how investment confidence in China is up, CCTV turns its languid gaze elsewhere.

On a day without Xi, a day of no news, the big story is disaster in far away Hawaii.

Villages have clearly-marked evacuation zones and sandbags are available to shore up defenses and protect villagers against any residual flooding.

In keeping with CCTV’s edgy America-is-in-decline editorial theme familiar to viewers who are treated with shots of US train wrecks, race riots, crime sprees and natural calamities on an almost daily basis, Hawaii is deemed a story that bears repeating several days in a row. In keeping with this editorial tradition, the huge disaster in Hawaii is depicted as being met with official neglect, but CCTV cares!

Firstly, CCTV viewers are invited to compare a series of before-and-after shots of quaint Lahaina on the island of Maui.