July 29, 2008 10:13 AM
Hu Jintao Does Not Care For OPS+
The
Chinese have promised to unblock many censored Western websites during these
Olympic Games, but many sites still mysteriously "time out" or have
servers that "do not respond." Certain pages on CNN.com or BBC.com
won't load here in Beijing; Google image searches for "Tiananmen
Square" or "Falun Gong" won't work either. But there is one website that's blocked here that I find especially strange. I'm talking, of course, about the fine bloggers over at Fire Joe Morgan.
I am not sure why this is the case. Maybe the Chinese government wants to hide the link between high BABIP and overinflated batting averages. Maybe they're against those who lurk in their mother's basement, thumbing through the dusty box scores in old editions of Sporting News. Maybe they just like Murray Chass' new website.
Whatever the reason, here's an open call for the Chinese government to unblock Fire Joe Morgan. The good people of China deserve to know what inane things the American baseball media are saying. Do not deprive the people of their JoeChats.
July 29, 2008
1:54 PM
Hugh Akston writes:
Ok, that's it. I can deal with them censoring their people and shipping off & torturing dissidents. I pay little attention to Tibet and Falun Gong, mostly because I don't understand them, and those Falun Gong people are bothersome on the streets of NYC, but this is just too much.
I'm officially putting China on my "do not travel to" list. Though in fairness, the list currently includes all places that are more than a 7 hour coach flight.
July 29, 2008
2:14 PM
Carman Tse writes:
FJM uses the Blogger engine which is probably why it's blocked, as most blogs/internet journals are blocked in China.
July 29, 2008
2:16 PM
Brian O'Neill writes:
This really puts Tibet, Darfur, and that so-called "massacre" in Tiananmen in perspective. If the Chinese are anything like me- and I assume they are, since we presumably all share a burning passion for General Tsao and his excellent chicken- they would gladly trade all of those Falun Gong wierdos for FJM.
July 29, 2008
2:39 PM
Charles writes:
There are not too many things more subversive to a state that depends on a monolithic press than FJM.
July 29, 2008
2:49 PM
Charles writes:
There are not too many things more subversive to a state that depends on a monolithic press than FJM.
July 29, 2008
2:51 PM
josh writes:
our cries for FJM will not be silenced by the CCP
July 29, 2008
3:13 PM
Brian O'Neill writes:
This really puts Tibet, Darfur, and that so-called "massacre" in Tiananmen in perspective. If the Chinese are anything like me- and I assume they are, since we presumably all share a burning passion for General Tsao and his excellent chicken- they would gladly trade all of those Falun Gong wierdos for FJM.
July 29, 2008
3:43 PM
Rasberry Jones writes:
I demand FJM!
July 29, 2008
3:47 PM
CoryDane writes:
Really? That's just crazy. This is one of the best informed, most hilarious reads on the Internets. Plural on purpose. Good thing I'm staying right here in Colorado, where we like our websites accessible, and our blogs snarky. Woody Paige notwithstanding. That guy is horrible. :-)
July 29, 2008
4:11 PM
EBP writes:
Perhaps it's because Blogspot/Blogger is blocked.
July 29, 2008
4:37 PM
jose vidro writes:
there blocking FJM because they cant handle the truth
STICK IT TO THE MAN!
July 29, 2008
4:38 PM
bill writes:
They are Communists! Why does this confuse you? Granted, they allow "free" enterprise now, that makes them Fascists. Why does this surprise you?The good people of China deserve to know what inane things you are saying.
July 29, 2008
5:05 PM
Dak Tremendous, Jr. writes:
China obviously doesn't understand that blogs are written by people, not computers.
July 29, 2008
5:55 PM
Lee writes:
Bizarre...
July 29, 2008
6:16 PM
j writes:
amen
July 29, 2008
6:58 PM
Two Dogs writes:
Even FJM is on its own domain, it still uses the Blogger software and archives. All Blogger blogs have been blocked for at least the last three years.
Help them out, Daniel, China needs Blogger.
July 29, 2008
7:05 PM
CPT_Hoolie writes:
It's because the Chinese are big fans of sac bunts. The needs of the many, indeed.
July 29, 2008
8:28 PM
Dan writes:
Try a proxy in the US it could circumvent this.
July 29, 2008
10:50 PM
mike in china writes:
Youre obviously one of those people who does not live in China and has no understanding of the way things work here. Keep on trying, maybe someday you will understand (but I doubt it) T'men images not showing up on image searches? Uh what planet are you living on? I just did an image search on ten websites for t'men pictures and no problem... Youre stupid and shouldnt be allowed to blog.
July 29, 2008
10:53 PM
mike in china writes:
You are obviously one of the people who does not live in China and has no understanding of how things work here. Its cool though, keep on writing on your little blogs thinking you know whats up here. I just searched for T'men square on about ten websites and I had no problems.. Youre one of those people who believes everything you see on TV. Congrats on being an ignorant fool who talks nonsense on your blog about things you dont understand. People like you make me sick.
July 29, 2008
11:25 PM
CPT_Hoolie writes:
It's because commies, unlike FJM, LOVE sac bunts.
July 30, 2008
2:34 AM
Nick Underhill writes:
Come on, can't you guys stop making the reference to people hanging out in their mother's basement? Not every member of the independent media works from their mother's basement. Believe it or not, some of us actually lead productive lives and actually leave the confines of our caves that you all think we inhabit. During broad daylight, no less. I know, it's shocking, but not everyone in the MSM has to condescend to the level of the inane individual that started this nonsense. It's become rather cliche, don't you think? Although, I'm not quite sure you should be included in my lambast, as the way that you have implied it here is rather ambiguous. It's quite possible that you are thumbing your nose at all those that use this term to describe 'bloggers', considering you are openly supporting FJM. If this is the case, I apologize, but I can't help but to take offense each time I encounter this nonsense.
July 30, 2008
2:51 AM
Mike writes:
I believe it's blocked because it's a Blogger blog. The ban includes basically blanket blocking of anything that looks like a blog or has the text "blog" in the URL, unless it's one of the specially approved Chinese blog sites (like blog.sina.com.cn or blogcn.com).
Man, I get tired of this country sometimes...
July 30, 2008
1:20 PM
Mike Auge writes:
Amen... the world deserves to read FJM
July 31, 2008
1:38 PM
Creston writes:
There could be a simpler reason, ofcourse. Maybe the Chinese government just really likes Joe Morgan and doesn't want him fired?
After all, like Joe, they're firm believers in bleating all kinds of stuff that's just not true.
July 31, 2008
9:50 PM
Matt Smith writes:
FireJoeMorgan.Com posted a comment explaining how someone in China can get to their site:
Nick sez:
I live in China and still get to enjoy FJM.
Please tell Daniel Oshinsky of the Rocky Mountain News that he can go to proxy sites and then type in www.firejoemorgan.com:
http://www.proxy4china.com
http://proxychina.org
Meanwhile, the reason for blocking FJM in China is pretty obvious. Can you imagine how much the bases get clogged in a nation of 1.4 billion people?
August 13, 2008
11:02 AM
Dan writes:
It is probably on a server that has some other site the CCP wants blocked.