Full Text: Li Datong's Memo

(5) If an article receives a memo of praise from leaders in the Secretariat of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, add 80 points.

(6) If an article receives a memo of praise from leaders in the Central Propaganda Department, add 120 points. For receiving special praise in the Central Propaganda Department's "News Commentary," add 100 points. If mentioned for praise in "News Commentary," add 50 points.

(7) If an article receives a memo of praise from the committee of a national ministry or provincial leaders, add 100 points. If it receives a letter of praise from a ministry or a provincial committee, add 80 points.

(8) If an article receives a memo of praise from the central leadership (Politburo members and higher), add 300 points.

Starting with clause (5), if an article is praised, the editor responsible for that section receives a prize of 30 percent of the points.

Subtracting points:

(6) For (5) through (8) in "Awarding points," articles receiving criticism will use these standards for deducting points.

Looking at these regulations, I couldn't believe my eyes. An article or a section can only receive 50 points for receiving the highest rating by readers, but just for praise of some official the least it can receive is 80, and the highest is 300! As if this wasn't enough to make an impression on editors and reporters, in the "subtracting points" clauses, it especially adds that if criticized by these different levels of officials, points will be "deducted." What does this mean? This means that no matter how much work you put into a report, no matter how difficult the investigation, how fine the writing, there is still the chance that you will face a life and death crisis. (Aren't reporters already attacked frequently for exposing the truth?) No matter how strongly readers praise an article, if it makes some official unhappy, and receives a couple sentences of "criticism" then not only is all your labor for naught, but the prestige of the paper is for naught, and it goes without saying that the opinion of the readers is worth less than a fart. And you still need to pay money for this -- a month's salary might not even be enough!

Under this arbitrary and meaningless arrangement, what sane journalist would choose to write public interest reports? By coincidence, the most basic function of mainstream media, representing social conscience and justice, seeking justice for the weak and disadvantaged, which cannot be replaced by other organizations in society -- media monitoring -- is not mentioned once in these regulations. This cannot be explained by "overlooked", it has been intentionally omitted!

Besides small daily rewards, there is also a "special reward" from the editor-in-chief. This could be considered a "grand" prize -- you can win up to 20,000 yuan. What is deserving of such a huge prize? The rules are below:

(1) "The top three in Section A" Ha. Section A is controlled by the editor-in-chief. "The top eight in overall points." What is this encouraging? Articles with independent discoveries, deep investigations and superior writing are produced in lower quantities, have greater value to the fame of the paper and contribute more to fighting for readership. Is this paper lacking in ephemeral junk articles?

(2) Not surprisingly, this is about receiving "praise" from different leaders. The more praise, the greater the reward.