Costas vs Rogge

凌晨2点10分播了这段访谈，正巧被我看到。嗯，NBC实在没有勇气在黄金时段播出，因为Bob Costas被罗格驳斥得体无完肤。在外交手段娴熟的罗格面前，Bob小朋友的肤浅被暴露无遗，几次都被罗格的回答噎住，面部表情如同刚打了BOTOX一样僵硬。可惜还没有找到视频放上来欣赏。这里转载部分对话稿。Bob反华的丑恶行径从1992年主播奥运会开始就没有消停过。不是我不宽容，实在是有些人执迷不悔，像信了邪教似的，难道是生于麦卡锡时代造的孽？

Costas: When China was granted the Olympics in 2001, the expectation and the promise was that there would be significant reform in the areas of human rights and press freedoms. Has there been?

Rogge: Let me clear out one ambiguity that they did not make a formal promise. They did not specify what they would do. They said that they thought that the Games would improve human rights. The human rights issue has been disputed by the NGOs. Unless the international human rights was saying that human rights have not progressed because of the Olympics Games, we're not going to challenge NGOs. They are specialized in their field. We respect them all. We are saying that we believe that the Games have put a highlight and a spotlight on China. We bring in 25,000 media people. And we have obtained for these media people the right and the freedom to express their views. You can report freely, Bob, on sport. But, if you wish to report on the situation of human rights in China, you will be able to do this because of the Olympic Games. You couldn't be doing that six months ago.

Costas: Obviously, the IOC has limitations in terms of what power and even influence it has. On the other hand, if China denies Joey Cheek, as exemplary an Olympian as has ever existed, if China denies him a visa, if they send two women in their late 70s off to a labor camp, for "reeducation" because they filed for a legal protest, if those things happen, why doesn't the IOC just emphatically and publicly raise hell and say we can't stand for this? We may not be able to stop it, but we strongly protest it?

Rogge: Well, on the first case we definitely expressed on the Joey Cheek issue, we just expressed to the Chinese government the wish that he would get the visa. Now, this is again a sovereign matter. May I recall to you of the case that occurred not so long ago where the Cuban national baseball team was prevented to enter the territory of the United States of America because of the law you are having. We have insisted that's at the level of the State Department to say please, let the Cubans participate in the world championship, let them enter the country. The State Department said we are bound by the law, we can't do that. Well, we have to respect these decisions.

Costas: I think some observers say we understand that Jacques Rogge and the IOC have a limitation to their power, all they can do is attempt to persuade. But, they would prefer a more emphatic and direct public statement in some circumstances, and some have arisen here in China.

Rogge: Well, because that would probably serve their needs. You know, when Beijing was elected for the 2008 Games, I consulted with many, many Sinologues, specialists of China, heads of state, politicians, ambassadors, business people who have worked and lived in China. I spoke with Chinese. And all of them said there is one golden rule if you want to obtain something in China, you work with a quiet diplomacy. You don't grandstand. You don't shout. You don't lambaste, because it's not going to work. We obtained the maximum that the IOC, a non-sovereign body, could obtain from the Chinese authorities in many fields, media, freedom, environment, but also a lot of other social issues like proper compensation for expropriation and things like that, child labor. But this is not something you do by making a press conference and saying I'm going to ask this or that. And by the way, let's be very honest. How could we ask the IOC to succeed where generations of heads of state and prime ministers have failed. You've seen here in China, every year tens of heads of state of government coming to China, signing very, very good contracts for their business and their world of enterprise and going back to their countries. Have they revolutionized China? They have made progress. We believe that we have contributed to that. But don't ask us to do what heads of state cannot achieve.