Once again, the propaganda mandarins have been in overdrive. Fresh from patting themselves on the back for hosting the Olympics and Paralympics, they must have been giddy at the prospect of distracting the general public from a global food safety crisis that started in their own backyard and continues to widen across much of the world.

Back in the West, when a government leader is mired in a controversy that drags on, they usually take the opportunity to get out town for a few days and head overseas on some sort of diplomatic jaunt that is suddenly urgent, if not timely. It’s a tactic that usually results in keeping the press hounds at bay long enough so that when the minister, prime minister, cabinet member or president in question returns, the press and the public have moved onto to a new scandal involving someone else. The foreign diplomacy slight-of-hand is usually enough of a distraction to solve the problem.

But the gang in the CCP Politburo didn’t even have to have to pick up the phone to book a flight. Instead, it used a spaceflight to take the minds of 1.3 billion people off the poison that may be lurking in their fridges. At the same time, the leadership was able to administer another dose of national pride to sooth any sense of insecurity that may have arisen from living in a country that might actually be able to make poison more poisonous.

The way state media presented the spacewalk event, (aka another flag waving) you might have almost forgotten that this has actually been done before – many times by astronauts from other countries. It was as if this was some sort of first for humanity.

While the rest of the world was watching the US economy – and therefore much of the global economy - teeter on the brink of catastrophe, while more car bombs took the lives of innocent people in violence-torn countries, and while millions of supermarkets spent the weekend clearing their shelves of anything that even rhymed with melamine, China’s state-run media machine felt it was time for a ‘good news’ story. And that was the only story. To be sure, the images were impressive, except for the many times the studio directors cut to shots of smiling CCP leaders who were only too happy to take credit for the work of thousands of dedicated scientists. I especially like the slow motion shots of the politicians; they somehow give them an orchestrated dimension of humanity.

When there wasn’t live coverage of the spacewalk, there were newscasts that reported almost nothing but. Other stories, if they were mentioned at all, got about 30 seconds. I think one tainted milk story I saw on CCTV buried towards the end of a newscast mentioned something about the long road ahead in trying to restore public confidence in the country’s food safety system…. snooooooore. C’mon! Surely, viewers would rather watch a cool spaceship story instead learning how a vital link in the nation’s food supply chain was compromised.

The point here isn’t to belittle China’s space program. On the contrary, the accomplishments to date have been truly extraordinary, inspiring an entire country, and firmly placing China at the space race player table. This weekend’s event was the latest in a series of ambitious milestones. It’s a big story, but it is not the only story. Just ask the tens of thousands of Chinese parents with poisoned infants.

Having managed a newsroom for a few years, I’m aware of the importance in setting priorities for news coverage on a daily basis. By priorities, I mean you must choose the stories of the day that are most relevant to your audience, and then use your resources as responsibly as you can to make those stories meaningful.

It’s clear, however, that the priorities of the few old men who decide what 1.3 million people get to see on their newscasts are drastically misplaced. Tens of thousands of babies are sick and four have died because of corruption and a deeply flawed quality control system that has been allowed to fester for years. While food inspectors fan out across the country (not sure what they were doing until now), the country’s top leaders continue to point the finger of blame at greedy corporations, unscrupulous farmers, lazy quality control supervisors, and at all levels of government – all levels, that is, except theirs. The accountability-buck always stops there.  

In the meantime, the country gets a good show and maybe forgets about the food safety crisis for a little while. While China’s space program reaches new heights, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the government’s media priorities to come back down to earth.