Criticizing China...
On a US TV Show?!
That’s not okay.
CBS has self-censored
because of China.
This is China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Shocking news!
Actually, no.
It’s pretty typical—
a giant US corporation self-censoring
because of business interests in China.
This time it’s CBS.
CBS All Access is a streaming app like Netflix
that lets you watch your favorite CBS shows on demand.
There are even some CBS shows
that are only broadcast on the app,
like Star Trek Discovery,
and The Good Fight.
But it turns out CBS All Access
isn’t quite “all access” after all.
On the May 2nd episode of The Good Fight,
basically a legal drama,
this flashed on the screen for 8 seconds.
Because this happened right after a conversation
about censorship on the show,
many viewers thought it was a joke.
But no, it was not a joke.
There was an entire section of the episode
that was actually censored.
What was so controversial that CBS execs
felt they had to force The Good Fight producers
to put up that embarrassing and slightly confusing text?
Could it be, perhaps,
this scene featuring a Uighur woman talking about
the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses?
“One million of us are being confined in what
the Chinese term ‘reeducation camps.’”
“And what does ‘reeducation’ refer to?”
“Changing our religious beliefs.
We are ordered to sing hymns praising the Community Party,
and write self-criticism essays.”
Wow, that’s pretty sensitive!
But that’s not the part that was censored.
See, then she started talking about Chumhum—
which is The Good Fight’s stand-in for Google.
“I tried to warn others.
I used Chumhum to announce that authorities
were coming to arrest dissidents,
religious activists.
But Chumhum was cooperating with the Chinese government.”
But that wasn’t the part that was censored, either.
It turns out, I can’t show you the part that was censored.
Because it’s so politically sensitive
that there doesn’t seem to be a version of it anywhere online.
See, the Good Fight often has short,
animated songs in the middle of episodes.
And these shorts cover loads of controversial topics.
For instance, Pepe the Frog.
“And then tada, a cartoon nazi frog.”
They even had one about impeaching President Trump.
“Your tiny hands will scratch and claw,
but nobody’s above the law.”
Now CBS had no problem with that stuff.
But the animated short in this episode went too far.
Here’s the lead up to it.
And again, they’re talking about Chumhum,
which is basically the in-show version of Google.
“It’s an exploratory program.
It's a customized version of our search engine
that we're developing for China.”
“Wait, customized?
As in it allows China to censor content?!”
“We don't like to call it ‘censoring.’
It just obeys the laws of the land.”
“So you did manipulate your algorithm?”
“It’s the Chinese market.
You need to toe the line
or you get frozen out of the market.”
And *that’s* where the censorship happens.
So what was so sensitive?
Well, according to the songwriter, John Coulton,
the animated short had a song that mentioned
some of the *specific* things
the Chinese regime is censoring:
“Falun Gong, a spiritual movement
that is repressed by the Chinese government;
Tiananmen Square,
a reference to the violent crackdown
on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989;
[and] Winnie-the-Pooh
to whom China’s president, Xi Jinping,
is often compared.”
So I guess CBS is saying that you can show Pepe the Frog,
but you can’t show Winnie the Pooh.
I think I have a solution for that: Pepe-the-Pooh.
You’re welcome.
The censored animated short also apparently described
“the way that media companies censor content,
with animations of movie scenes being snipped out of film strips.”
And it criticizes Western companies
for self-censoring in China out of greed.
In fact, the song ended with the line,
“I hope this song is banned in China.”
Is that ironic?
Not really.
It would be if it had been banned in China.
But no, it’s a tragedy,
because CBS banned it in America.
CBS All Access,
which from now on I’m going to call CBS Some Access, said,
“We had concerns with some subject matter
in the episode’s animated short.
This is the creative solution
that we agreed upon with the producers.”
Apparently the producers threatened to quit,
but agreed to stay on if they could run
“CBS has censored this content.”
The Good Fight is a spin off of an older CBS show
called The Good Wife.
That show had been banned in China,
because it showed a Chinese dissident
being tortured in China.
Clearly “CBS Some Access” learned its lesson!
Or maybe it’s just because a few years ago,
CBS signed a major streaming deal in China.
And as The Good Fight puts it,
“It’s the Chinese market.
You need to toe the line
or you get frozen out of the market.”
Now, while this may be shocking,
it isn’t really new.
As the censored animated short presumably points out,
Hollywood has been censoring their content
to get into the Chinese market for years.
What’s different about this case is that
the public actually found out about it—
because the show producers drew attention to it.
Is CBS going to suffer any blowback
for their decision to censor The Good Fight?
If they don’t,
it will just encourage media companies
to keep doing this in the future.
I’d also like to point out that it would be a real shame
if someone leaked that censored short on the Internet,
where it could go viral.
By the way,
CBS’s reaction is also why you won’t see China Uncensored
on any of the major American TV networks.
And on that note,
may I remind you that China Uncensored
only exists because of support from viewers like you
on the crowd-funding website Patreon?
For as little as a dollar per episode,
not only will you help keep China Uncensored alive,
not only will you get some cool perks
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as a way of saying thanks,
I’ll answer your questions on the show.
Today’s question comes from...
Joel Neatrour,
“Hey Chris: how will China reconcile its suppression / oppression
of Chinese Uyghurs diplomatically with Saudi Arabia and Iran?
Surely that is, or will become,
a bone of contention in the budding relationship
between the CCP and key players in the Middle East.”
That’s a question a lot of people have been asking.
The Chinese Communist Party is brutally oppressing
the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighur population in China’s Xinjiang.
Including most likely killing them for their organs.
But there’s been hardly any complaints
from any of the predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern countries.
Why?
Well, I can’t say for sure.
But China has been investing heavily in the region.
After a recent 28 billion dollar deal with China,
the Saudi Crown Prince did bring up the Uighurs, saying
“China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism
and de-extremisation work for its national security.”
In fact so far,
only Turkey has brought up the plight of the Uighurs.
And barely, at that.
So I really have to wonder
if China’s treatment of Muslims in China
really is that big of a concern
for countries in the Middle East.
Thanks for your question Joel.
And thank you to everyone watching.
Even if you can’t support the show on Patreon,
you can support the show by liking this video,
subscribing,
and sharing it with you friends and family.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell
thanks for watching China Uncensored.
Want to know more about what happened with CBS?
Next week, we’ll have the songwriter
for the animated short that got censored
on the China Unscripted Podcast!
Click here to check out the channel and subscribe.