Dem
47
GOP
53
LeBron James may be near the end of the line, in terms of his playing days, but globally, he's still the biggest star in the NBA (among active players, at least). And so, with a few weeks left in his offseason, James decided to make a goodwill tour of China. He's got product he wants to move (e.g., branded shoes), while the NBA's most important and lucrative audience, excepting (maybe) Americans, is the Chinese.
While James was in China, there was a rather unexpected story about his writing a very fawning op-ed for the People's Daily, an op-ed full of remarks like "Basketball is not only a sport—it is a bridge that connects us." Some interpreted this as a poke in Donald Trump's eye, given the administration's currently frosty relationship with Xi Jinping. Others interpreted it as a shot across the bow of James' critics, many of whom have lamented his unwillingness to comment on human rights abuses in that nation.
James does not often write longer-form pieces for anyone, as he tends to prefer tweets and podcasts when he wants to speak to the world. He's also pretty politically savvy, and not prone to wade into controversy if he does not have to.. Further, any eye-poking on that level, before a global audience, would be a pretty big deal. So, the op-ed was big news, with the Associated Press, in particular, taking the lead in propagating it.
Maybe the AP (and others) should have been a little less credulous. Again, the whole thing was out of character for him. And even if he WAS going to wade into the realm of international politics, it is not probable he would utilize the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party as his platform. And indeed, the story is semi-fake news. While he was in China, he did some interviews with reporters. And one reporter took some of his real quotes and fabricated them into the very China-friendly op-ed that was then promulgated to the world. This is, after all, what propaganda outlets do.
So, the Chinese got caught with their hands in the (almond) cookie jar (fortune cookies were invented in the U.S.). It's not so easy to have your propaganda go unchallenged when it reaches a whole bunch of people you can't put in jail if they start asking questions, is it Mr. Xi? On top of that, the AP got a reminder that, on occasion, the reports of Mark Twain's death have been greatly exaggerated. We think this global case of egg on the face is amusing enough to be worthy of this item, and yet light enough to be appropriate for an otherwise very heavy posting. (Z)