An issue of trust

"That's not my job, my job is not to worry about whether we're going to offend some cadre down the street"

My esteemed colleague Charlie Shifflet is currently campaigning for the inclusion of a quote on our focus topic this week. The quote is contentious in that it suggests young people do not watch news-related videos in China because they do not trust the state as a viable news source. This is exactly the kind of thing the small cabal of a few (foreign) good men on this paper want to see included in our articles. The inclusion of such a quote would set apart from our competitors and give our readers a reason to trust us and continue to read our paper, even after their English level is sufficient to read Western news sources online.

Needless to say, Charlie has just returned to his seat "very disappointed". He did have a chance to fire off this riposte:

"We're writing for a new generation of Chinese and if we give them their parents way of looking at the world, they're very quickly going to grow tired of that world view. We need to give them a view that's not outdated and ignores the obvious."

What's the obvious here? That young Chinese don't watch as much news-related content online because they are, erm, young. Yes folks, that's the kind of penetrating analysis we like here, and heaven forbid it if we try to spice things up by daring to presume our readers might be intelligent to glean this for themselves upon a few moments quiet reflection...