Most media outlets are under plenty of influence everywhere and so is this board. What is sad is that regular falks cannot get the true picture of the real world, even though they have so many sources at hand. The degree of manipulation in just about every field in China, however, is astonishing to say the least. Amazingly, when we thought that the internet would make it easier to share information than before, we've found that it hasn't made all the snake oil sales people's messages worth reading.