A chat with 'Kevin'
- By Cam MacMurchy
- Published March 11, 2008
- News
- Unrated
With posting light of late, I figured I'd pass along this video. It features CCTV 9 rabblerouser Rui Chenggang, who earned his 15 minutes of fame by calling for Starbucks to be removed from the Forbidden City, interviewing then-Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd.
Rudd shows off his Chinese ability, which is clearly impressive. The question is, why does Rui Chenggang look completely disinterested in the interview? He wears a pained expression that seems to indicate somebody interrupted him from something much more important and ordered him behind the anchor desk against his will. Worse, he refers to the opposition leader as "Kevin". If he had a chance to interview Senator McCain about Sino-US relations, would he simply call him "John"?
Perhaps I'm picking on CCTV 9 a little bit, but that's what happens when it's a slow news day. And, this video isn't particularly worse than any other random video which could've been lifted from the station. And I'll stress again, the quality issues at CCTV 9 aren't usually the fault of the employees (although there are lots of examples of this, too), but rather upper management.
As an aside, if anybody gets a copy of a certain report that CCTV 9 ran introducing Beijing's new airport, I'd love to have a personal copy. As funny as CCTV 9 can be, this was the only time that three friends and I (also current and former CCTV 9 employees) were literally in tears amid gales of laughter.
(Full Disclosure: I was an employee of CCTV 9 from June 2005 to March 2006.)
Rudd shows off his Chinese ability, which is clearly impressive. The question is, why does Rui Chenggang look completely disinterested in the interview? He wears a pained expression that seems to indicate somebody interrupted him from something much more important and ordered him behind the anchor desk against his will. Worse, he refers to the opposition leader as "Kevin". If he had a chance to interview Senator McCain about Sino-US relations, would he simply call him "John"?
Perhaps I'm picking on CCTV 9 a little bit, but that's what happens when it's a slow news day. And, this video isn't particularly worse than any other random video which could've been lifted from the station. And I'll stress again, the quality issues at CCTV 9 aren't usually the fault of the employees (although there are lots of examples of this, too), but rather upper management.
As an aside, if anybody gets a copy of a certain report that CCTV 9 ran introducing Beijing's new airport, I'd love to have a personal copy. As funny as CCTV 9 can be, this was the only time that three friends and I (also current and former CCTV 9 employees) were literally in tears amid gales of laughter.
(Full Disclosure: I was an employee of CCTV 9 from June 2005 to March 2006.)
