Harbin: Disaster, yes; One of China's Biggest Cities, no

Originally posted to http://www.livejournal.com/users/marpow/ on [25 Nov 2005|11:41am]

The chaos in Harbin is unbelievable. People are fleeing a city over water pollution. The poor are left filling up bath tubs, the rich are fleeing to their second houses in the country or clogging the airports and train stations.

Foreign correspondents are cozying up in the city's best hotels.

A massive toxic slick drifting through the region's main water supply is a tragedy and I, for one, hope the China National Petroleum Corp. loses the upcoming court battle and is called to account.

However, I wish journalists would STOP CALLING HARBIN ONE OF CHINA'S BIGGEST CITIES.

Harbin's population is meant to be around 3.8 million. The total population of the entire region is meant to be around 10 or 11 million. This is far, far, far from one of China's biggest cities - especially considering China is estimated to have more than 100 cities with more than a million people. Suzhou has about 5 million, Chengdu has about 10 million, Chongqing has around 30 million, Shanghai has around 20 million, Hangzhou has about 6.3 million, just to name a few.

I don't know who ran the original story, though I'm assuming it was a wire service; but it seems that numerous papers (including the Globe and Mail, for shame) have picked it up and used it in their lead.

If journalists want to size it up, say "bigger than Toronto" or something like that, don't LIE and overstate an issue that does NOT need to be overstated at all.

I automatically think back to Scoop, and how Waugh portrays the journalists as ignorant of the local culture and widely overstate, exagerrate, and make up situations. This all leads, obviously, to a desire to have THEIR OWN story picked up and run in several papers, which this wire reporter seems to have accomplished.

I hope the journalist is happy with the momentary, ill-gotten fame, and that the wire service made a pretty penny, but now Harbin - a major city for sure, but small in comparison to others - is known under an international misconception.

All for a good lede. Sigh.

Also, CTV news carried last night what I thought was an excellent TV news piece on the Harbin disaster. However, even days after its been flooding the newswires...Harbin is still being called one of China's biggest cities.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com
/art/2005/11/25/217976/Cleanup_teams_battle_massive_chemical_slick.htm