actually quite a reasoned report. i can't imagine what reactions the reporter would have got if he had interviewed people from Wasilla, Alaska or some other "real-America" city.

Good gravy, could Al-Jazeera make a report that's any shallower than that one?

I have to agree with the Chinese report that the US has its own human rights problems, but there are huge differences. For one thing, the US media are not restricted from reporting human rights abuses, which helps get them resolved sooner. As for racism, it's hard to say the government hasn't done its part with all sorts of programs giving preferential treatment to minorities and the poor.

William, but has it? We're certainly better off than we were forty years ago, but has anything actually been resolved? I wouldn't say so. It's probably not the word you were looking for, really, I mean to resolve "human rights abuses" doesn't really make any sense. Expose them much faster, yes.

I found this report vapid and shallow too, which is surprising because I've seen Al-Jazeera do some much better reporting. He interviews two people from Orange County, one liberal woman who doesn't address the question about how does she feel that China, a country not ranking too highly in human rights, issues these kinds of reports, and a woman working for Human Rights Watch. Not exactly covering the spectrum of America, is it.

As for the black woman, her situation sucks but it was the most compelling part of the story--I wish he could have just focused on her life and whether it is an accurate representation of a widespread problem for the Chinese to point out. Isn't picking South Central LA kinda like the US picking Xinjiang or Tibet to focus our criticisms on?

not really picking South Central LA is kinda like picking migrant workers in Shanghai. picking Xinjiang or Tibet to focus our criticisms should be more like picking indian reservations, just my two 2 cents

There's a distinct difference in people's reaction when one's own media reports abuses and when a completely foreign media reports them. Al-Jazeera is known to be critical of American policies and when they tried to put up roots in the US I remember the backlash and bans put on them. I've found most Chinese receive criticism from Taiwan/HK better than from western media even if they both report the same things.

I would recommend Chinese government uses potion of it's huge foreign exchange reserves to establish "funds for human rights" just as what CIA is doing. Some *activists* in US and *independent thinkers* in countries not that friendly to the states may not hate to have some extra money in hands. A Mao Peace Prize might work well too.

vapid? shallow? what do you expect from a three minute segment?

Life is tough for people. It's the inhuman nature of the system. Perhaps what we really need to do is break away from the cycle. We must have a revolutionary shift in thinking. A possible solution: Use technology to bring forth this utopia (a scary word). What if we can eliminate scarcity? Do you think we can be energy dependent today, but instead we are bound by the artificial chains imposted on us due to insatiable need of the elite for greed? Eliminate greed? Can we over come the selfish nature of humanity?

The elites are not doing anything to bring about this change...They merely further themselves forward in amassing ever increasing wealth. It's hopeless... Unless the people wake up.

I'm not advocating for collectivism... Simply that we need to drastically change the framework in which we define our civilizations.

Watch Zeitgeist addendum. I'm scared by their collectivism utopian views... but I like their message of evolutionary paradigm shift. WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. WE MUST CHANGE!!! I WANT TO SEE REAL CHANGE IN MY LIFE TIME!!!

China just fed up of getting criticized by the US on human rights etc. Sure things are not perfect there, they have internal problems, but hey its a developing nation of 1.3 billion with still a massive amount of poverty. The US is the richest country in the world, and it still cant take care of its own, it also has mad human right problems and these don't limit themselves to US citizens alone. 40 million people without basic health care WAY TO GO!! And lastly it pretends to care about people around the world, so it can use that to invade other nations and make others look bad and rouge, when there were many people getting slaughtered elsewhere i didnt see them running around with there gunz then. So yea obviously China and whatever other countries are just sick of them BS'ing non stop when they mess up themselves.

lol the point isnt what the US gov has done. every single gov authority in the world has breached human rights in the past. what is human rights anyway?in 50 years the standard will be a lot different from now.

the point of the report is to illustrate the US gov's double standard when dealing with this human rights. which is kinda obvious anyone who denies this should just go home and fuck a donkey.human rights has become more of a tool for the US gov to go about doing whatever they wanna do,rather than a goal that they are trying to achieve for the good of its citizens.(as they claim)

human rights can only exist under an effective constitution, since there is no world constitution, no country can do anything about other countries' human rights issues, so its always domestic, on the international stage, this term is just an illusion.

and to lol: its not double standard, because its not even about human rights, we call it "pursuit of interests", and its always in single standard, if you get what i mean.

Al Jazeera comes from a similar school of journalism ethics as people claim FOX of being from. You could say the same about the creators of this report or the domestic news from the country critical of the U.S. in this report. They all really likes to walk the line between stretched truth an an active imagination. Next time when you do a report on how Jerry abuses Tom in Tom and Jerry, be sure only to interview a bunch of cats...or mouses that already hate Jerry.

"Al Jazeera asks Americans in San Francisco and Orange County what they think of China's critical report on human rights in the U.S.A."---description under video.

This says it all. San Francisco home of the Berkley liberal nuts is a really good sample of most America....NOT! If you want to ask real Americans what they think about anything then go anywhere but San Francisco. That's the home of the biggest American-hater: Nancy Pelosi.

As a comparison, if I were to ask Americans in Detroit, Michigan, or Youngstown, Ohio, or Syracuse, N.Y. or anywhere in the Rust Belt USA what they think about their factory jobs going to China I would bet all my money it would be a negative reaction. If I were a journalist and I worked for Al Jezeera or FOX then these are the folks I would absolutely interview. I would interview the CEO of Hasbro and ask him why? He would inform me that when he asked his factory workers in the USA to work 7-8 minutes longer each day that they went on strike for 2 weeks and didn't come to an agreement so he upped and moved to Guangzhou thus saving millions every year. Anyone would be stupid not to do what he did and Union employees should be ashamed of their laziness anyway.

SGT, sir!

Nancy Pelosi??? Nancy Pelosi? LOL. She sold out a long time ago. She's part of the ... ahh whatever it is that they all belong to... Yes them secret plotting plotters. Left, Right... It's the same. A game setup by the elites to play us on these stupid so-called issues.

What am I trying to say here??? It's all the same. They're all plotting cats out to get good ol' Jerry...

F*** them all.

It's all pointless. I suggest you just cash out your bank accounts and head for Vegas, hell, Macao... The End Is Nigh...

"It's all pointless. I suggest you just cash out your bank accounts and head for Vegas, hell, Macao... The End Is Nigh..."---LIGHT LORD OF SITH

I couldn't agree more...except that I think Amsterdam sounds sweeter...all those tulips to calm down the angry Sarge.

For those who are interested, the human rights record of the united states in 2007 can be found here:

http://www.gov.cn/misc/2008-03/13/content_918785.htm

Craig, that's a reputable source you got there. Note the sarcasm. Not even sure half those categories qualify as "HR" violations.

Here is a better source:

WARonBUSH