Hughes Politics

This week, I wanted to cover Chinese media again. I have actually been having some fun learning about how our adversaries see the west, and the tactics they use to discredit us. I want to talk about the Chinese media coverage of the United States media coverage regarding the Xinjiang genocide of Uyghur Muslims. An article from XINHUANET titled "Why Does the United States Keep Spreading Lies about Xinjiang?" notably outlines the past genocides of indigenous people and ethnic minorities. Seems like a major 'what-aboutism' in my book seeing that most countries have a dark history, and it surely is not a justification for further genocide. On his last day of office, the Trump administration accused Beijing of sending Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities to reeducation camps; a form of ethnic cleansing. And there have been reports of forced labor from the Uyghur community.  The  XINHUANET article says the motivation to spread these "lies" is not for ethic

Last week, I discussed the topical adversary Russia and its news coverage of the Brittney Griner sentencing. This week I wanted to discuss media coverage from China, another American adversary, and look at their perspective on the United States embargo over Cuba.  An article on XINHUANET , an English printed Chinese media company, titled "U.S. embargo costs Cuban sports sector millions in losses"   outlines how it is difficult for Cuban athletes to participate in the United States for international sports events. This contributes to about fifteen million dollars in losses for Cuba. This is a Cold War-era foreign policy of containment for the United States and has been condemned by the United Nations. These sanctions are not just a relic, but an active anti-communist policy. It would make sense that the Chinese Communist Party would criticize such a policy and make America look like the aggressor. This embargo has caused numerous economic issues, and the international communit

 This week, I wanted to cover an adversary as opposed to allied, flourishing democracies around the world. The Moscow Times  is a Russian based media company that covered the Brittney Griner case this week. As y'all may know, Brittney Griner is an American WNBA player that was detained in Russia after bringing a THC vape cartridge into the country. She has since been sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison for her charge, and American media has since labeled her a political pawn for the current Russian-Ukraine war. The article starts by explaining her appeal to the court has been denied and the sentence will be upheld. Communication between the White House and the Kremlin have involved negotiations of a prisoner swap, but all have been unsuccessful so far. The article also outlines the frustrated expressions of American National Security Advisor, calling the charges a "sham judicial procedure." As current events are still being played out, it is difficult to fully unders

Earlier this yea, President Biden declared that the Covid-19 global pandemic is over despite the narrative from the World Health Organization and international community. Going back to Canada this week, I went to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website to look for new topics to discuss on their main page. When I looked at the top left corner, the light bulb went off. There is a whole subpage dedicated to the pandemic, and the anxieties towards the pandemic become clear when looking at their public policy. The subpage shows the sense of societal significance that Covid has even over a year after a vaccine has been produced and distributed. Canada has had some of the most restrictive mandates in place in response to Covid, and mandates regarding international travel gained global attention with the truckers protest in Ottawa. But why? Canada is a country with socialized healthcare, so it makes sense that they have political incentive to be overtly precautionary in an event

 In my first official blog post, I talked about Canadian YouTuber and former Canadian political pundit, J.J. McCullough and his stances on Canadian insecurities about their national image and reputation. This week, I wanted to cover an ongoing saga in his channel as my topic directly affects J.J. and shows his involvement in the issue thus far. Nicholas Seles covers part of the issue in his short article "Why Bill C-11 - the Online Streaming Act - is bad news for Canadian YouTubers like Myself."  He begins by stating Bill C-11 is legislation designed to promote exclusively Canadian content, or "CanCon" in the world of streaming. The federal government plans to do this by putting internet media under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. This commission is in charge of ensuring television and radio companies promote pro-Canadian content in terms of content itself, contributors, and location. The commission will be respon

This week, I wanted to return to an old topic with a new perspective . France24  is a French state owned news company that covers global issues. Looking at their American section, I saw they did an article on the Martha's Vineyard scandal that has been ongoing, and decided to take a look as I have already analyzed the perspective of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . I already noticed some stark and obscure differences between the two. As mentioned in my first blog, there exists a Canadian anxiety to be fundamentally anti American on at least the cultural front. Because of this, the CBC tends to take a stance of the United State's affairs while France tends to remain impartial. The CBC article on the topic used specific language to inflict an emotion upon the audience to persuade it empathize with the migrants; "coward" to describe Governor Ron DeSantis and "political pawns" to describe the migrants.  The French article looks nothing like the Canadian