Reporting from Beijing — Even before it was revealed Tuesday that an unauthorized fireworks display organized by China Central Television caused the spectacular fire that destroyed one of Beijing's new glass-and-steel landmarks, the state-run broadcaster was already the subject of its own firestorm on the Internet.
The inferno at CCTV's new, still-unoccupied headquarters complex laid bare a simmering anger and resentment toward the network both for spending public money on grand construction projects and for continuing to broadcast government propaganda.
"As long as there aren't any injuries, let it burn. They don't need so many buildings [in] the first place," wrote one typical anonymous poster at the popular news portal Sohu.com. "CCTV enjoys too much luxury already. They will always have enough buildings, even though this building is down."
Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of a website that tracks Chinese media, said that among China's young, educated and urban, the stodgy network has long been a subject of ridicule, both for its low production values and its propagandistic news coverage.
But the fire -- which engulfed what was to be the Mandarin Oriental hotel, a dramatic, angular tower that stands next to the now-iconic CCTV building -- provided a new touchstone for critics, prompting the government to move quickly to mute the outrage.
By Tuesday morning, Beijing's propaganda ministry had ordered all Chinese media to stop reporting their own versions of the fire story and to use only the account provided by the official New China News Service. Newspapers were told not to use photos of the fire, nor to do any in-depth reporting.
A similar notice went out to news websites, which were told to shut down blogs and discussion groups on the subject.
"Many people were very happy and rejoiced at the fire. Some said it's good that it burned," said Li Datong, a former editor at the Communist Party newspaper China Youth Daily, who was fired three years ago for criticizing government censorship. "The government isn't happy with these kinds of emotions, so they strictly controlled all reports."
While many websites quickly deleted critical postings, the government's blunt tools were unable to completely stem the deluge.
One independent blogger named Zola posted an online poll in which 30% supported the statement "I hate CCTV, not just for this day. It has been fooling us for many years. It's definitely good for it to be self-immolated."
