China’s version of the SABC, the CCTV, is stoking our collective mirth once more with another particularly embarrassing news report.

National broadcasters are not generally renowned for the strong commitment to honesty when reporting the news, so the following facts are more humurous than shocking in nature, unless of course you happen to harbour a naive belief in the innate goodness of government-controlled news agencies, in which case, I’m sorry to have made you bitter.

China’s largest news network, and only officially endorsed television news outlet, the CCTV, has repurposed scenes from Top Gun as reportage in a 23 November 2010 evening news bulletin. The subject of the bulletin was the succesful completion of a People’s Liberation Army Air Force training exercise, in which a pilot is shown blowing a jet out of the sky.

The scene in question features a J-10 fighter plane, while the news anchor reminds viewers that they are watching a live fire exercise.

A source said that either editor laziness was to blame for the piracy, or the footage was “simply too good not to use”.

Well you frigging nailed it there, Source. Top Gun won an Oscar, I’ll have you know. I can’t wait for the news report on Nelson Mandela, featuring Morgan Freeman.

I feel the need…The need for…? Propaganda.

[Source : WSJ]