I think whether the protest is right or wrong, or what exactly it is about is not the major issue here, the fact that the media intentionally ignores the news is the real problem. A lot of people dunno this protest ever happens! The public deserves the right to know what happens, and it is the responbility of the media to report the fact, and let the readers decide what is right or wrong. But right now what the media is doing is just like:I am only telling you one side of the story and ask you to make a judgment.

We are in the midst of the political season. Here in NC, if the news isn't of the Democratic primary which we hold here next Tuesday or of local politics (also figuring prominently in next Tuesday's election), then there isn't much chance it will get much, if any, news time. Same with print media. Because of the close Democratic primary race and continuing news there, added to the Olympic flap, the imploding US economy, oil prices, food prices, the war, etc., I'm surprised there was any coverage of this event, even in a local media outlet. I wish there was less coverage of the primary season, but most people wouldn't have it any other way in such a lively race. News organizations are in the business of getting ratings, selling papers, getting hits on their websites, so they are basically giving the public the news they figure it wants to hear. Hardly a free press, but this is the situation we have here in the US where the press competes on the open entertainment market right next to American Idol.

Agenda-setting. 'News' is chosen, not reported. Besides, the majority of Americans would probably be un-sympathetic (or so the producers believed). It may also be that Americans, having seen the crackdown in Tibet and the goon squad 'protecting' the torch*, didn't find it offensive or inaccurate. That said, I think Americans don't realize that they say 'China' meaning the CCP, but Chinese people hear 'China' the nation.

I think you make a good point, whitebison66, when Americans think China, they think the Communist Party that runs the country. What do we know of the Chinese people? When Mao closed China back in the 50s, it was lost to view by the rest of the world. Then the Cultural Revolution (NOT good PR) happened, Vietnam war (where the Chinese were the bad guys, for sure, from the American public's point of view). China is this vast country that Americans know nothing about. I didn't realize until just recently how many officially recognized ethnic minorities there are in China (and that their treatment varies widely, not just talking Tibetans, here, either). Who knew that there are 8 or 9 officially recognized languages in China? Here in the West we see Beijing, Shanghai (if we are lucky) and a few historic sites like the tomb of the first Emperor. Maybe we have heard a snippet of Peking Opera (and it wasn't to our liking :-)) or saw Lang Lang perform Western classical music on television or DVD. For a country of over 1 billion people which covers a huge and quite varied landmass, and a people with 5,000 of cultural tradition, that is very little information for us to go on. If China wants to be better understood by the rest of the world, it needs to do more than give world-wide release to a few officially sanctioned bombastic films a year, films that mythologize its ancient and medieval history. Just hosting the Olympic Games is not going to give the rest of the world an in-depth look at China, its people, its history and its cultural traditions. John Woo's Red Cliff, a 2-hour Cliff Notes version of a 4-hour historical action blockbuster film, will not teach the West much about China and its history. China must bear some responsibilit for the fact that we know so little about it. Closing the country to Western film productions (who are then forced to shoot in Thailand instead of Shanghai) doesn't do much to improve this situation, either on a PR level or on a practical one. I think China must bear some responsibility for how ignorant the rest of the world is of the land, its people and its history. For far too long, the ruling party has controlled the image of China that has been presented to the rest of the world. That image has been of absolute obedience to authority, military might, intolerance of dissent, cultural uniformity (which is a myth), an economic miracle (which has grave social and environmental consequences that will be shown to the world during the Olympics, these problems are just too big to be hidden from 10s of thousands of journalists). There is plenty of blame to go around, and both China and the West bear responsibility for how little we know of China.