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proud2BlibKansan

(96,793 posts) Fri Mar 22, 2013, 12:44 AM Mar 2013

CBS Takes Heat For Communist Propaganda Stunt On 'Amazing Race' - VIDEO

CBS Takes Heat For Communist Propaganda Stunt On 'Amazing Race' - VIDEO

Vietnamese communists had their first big PR coup during the Tet offensive of 1968, when CBS’ Walter Cronkite ignored the decisive U.S. military victory and told America the war was unwinnable. Three and a half decades later, here comes CBS again, allowing an entertainment show to participate in a bit of old-fashioned communist propaganda.

The March 17 episode of “The Amazing Race” featured its usual routine; teams travelling to different countries and completing tasks in a race to reach the finish line. These tasks typically involve learning about another culture. However, in last night’s episode, when contestants traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, and had to memorize a Communist song, it moved from squishy multiculturalism to offensive agitprop.

The segment started out with a group of Vietnamese teenagers and children on stage, waving the Communist flag and singing. CBS provided the charming lyrics on the bottom of the screen:

Read more: http://www.957kjr.com/pages/bobrivers.html?article=11092391#ixzz2OEyl2ieZ

8 replies

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CBS Takes Heat For Communist Propaganda Stunt On 'Amazing Race' - VIDEO (Original Post) proud2BlibKansan Mar 2013 OP

The contestants didn't need to memorize the song. It was sung in Vietnamese and the LibDemAlways Mar 2013 #1

isn't that part of the show? to show different cultures. liberal_at_heart Mar 2013 #5

Good Grief! burrowowl Mar 2013 #2

Sadly, you won't find many ideological Communists in Vietnam today. Old and In the Way Mar 2013 #3

It didn't change everyone's mind. Graham Greene foresaw the end's format in 1955 . . . Journeyman Mar 2013 #6

"The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." V.I. Lenin Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2013 #4

Who wrote this red-baiting shit? 6000eliot Mar 2013 #7

Bob Rivers, a morning show host for Seattle oldies station 95.7 KJR alp227 Mar 2013 #8

LibDemAlways

(15,139 posts)

1. The contestants didn't need to memorize the song. It was sung in Vietnamese and the

Reply to proud2BlibKansan (Original post)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:06 AM

Mar 2013

contestants had no idea what the lyrics meant. Only the viewers at home saw the translation of the song - which expressed cultural pride. Contestants did have to memorize five or so Vietnamese words spelled out at the end of the song and match those words to posters in another room. The scenario may have been put forth by the Vietnamese government as a condition of filming there. Who knows? However, whoever wrote the article, got it wrong.

On edit: If Vietnamese game show contestants ended up in the US listening to a group of schoolchildren singing God Bless America, would we consider it propaganda? What BS.

liberal_at_heart

(12,081 posts)

5. isn't that part of the show? to show different cultures.

Reply to LibDemAlways (Reply #1)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:25 AM

Mar 2013

burrowowl

(17,639 posts)

2. Good Grief!

Reply to proud2BlibKansan (Original post)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:09 AM

Mar 2013

Long Live Ho Chi Ming!
Down with Richard Nixon!

Old and In the Way

(37,540 posts)

3. Sadly, you won't find many ideological Communists in Vietnam today.

Reply to proud2BlibKansan (Original post)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:12 AM

Mar 2013

Back then, Cronkite was right....while Tet may have not been a "victory" for the North, it changed everyone's thinking about what the idea of "victory" would be in this war. The fact that the North could execute on such a big strategic action caused the CIA and the US Military to confront the fact that they were not winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese population. We had killed millions at this point and perhaps we finally realized that we couldn't "win" in Vietnam without killing everyone, in both North and South Vietnam.

As Jimmy Buffett so well noted, we should have carpet-bombed VietNam with $5 bills...it would have been cheaper and would have totally changed the population's relationship with capitalism.

Journeyman

(15,031 posts)

6. It didn't change everyone's mind. Graham Greene foresaw the end's format in 1955 . . .

Reply to Old and In the Way (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 22, 2013, 03:01 AM

Mar 2013

the year he published The Quiet American. . .

"You are a journalist," said Captain Trouin. "You know better than I that we can't win. You know the road to Hanoi is cut and mined every night. You know we lose one class of St Cyr ever year. We were nearly beaten in '50. . . . But we are professionals: We have to go on fighting till the politicians tell us to stop. Probably they will get together and agree to the same peace that we could have had at the beginning, making nonsense of all these years."

Cronkite was only catching up to what more prescient minds foretold years before.