City Sun, September 28, 2010

Today's City Sun (城市信报), a Shandong-based commercial paper under the Dazhong Newspaper Group, proclaims the results of three eyewitness investigations:

"Tracking the journey of KFC chicken": the paper dispatched its reporters to investigate one of the fast-food chain's major chicken suppliers. It's a four-page feature story with a top headline on the front page, so you might imagine that the paper uncovered some juicy scandal or shocking health violation. You'd be wrong: "Reporters visited the source of KFC's chicken and, following a two week-long, thoroughly-recorded undercover investigation into the raising, processing, shipping, and distribution processes, discovered no major problems," reads the intro to one article. Another piece asks, "Should you be worried about KFC's distribution?" The answer is no.

Earlier this month, the City Sun ran a multi-page feature on fake Maotai liquor which, like today's KFC piece, had the feel of a soft ad.

"City Sun special reporter explores 'Chang'e' in Xichang": China's second lunar probe, Chang'e 2, is set to lift off from Xichang, Sichuan Province, on National Day, October 1.

"Reporter goes to Tianjin to visit poster in person": This article is a follow-up to the story of Tianjin Normal University associate professor Li's "sex diary," which allegedly details his encounters with university students. The diary was posted by the professor's wife, identified in the media as Zhang; Li's lawyer has suggested that Zhang fabricated the diary as part of an attack on her estranged husband. There is little actual content in the City Sun article: Zhang explains to the reporter that she has accepted no other media interviews, but refuses to talk in detail about the case. At the close of the interview, the reporter overhears a phone conversation that seems to imply that the professor has managed to seize Zhang's computer from her home.

A fourth headline on the front page is a credulous report on the busted "UN alien ambassador story."