Follow up on the earlier posting about the IOC, China and censorship.

What I find amazing is that people are surprised this happened. As a friend of mine in Asia said when we were discussing this, "This ought to come as zero surprise to anyone."

Anyone -- and I mean ANYONE -- who has ever dealt with the Chinese government on the issue of press freedom knows that he/she is walking into an "Alice in Wonderland" experience. Words mean what the cadres in Beijing say they mean.

• Access to the Internet means access to what the Beijing authorities determine what is Olympic related.
• Access to the Chinese people is limited to what Beijing decides is Olympic related.

And look at the wording of the original agreement. Beijing said clearly that access would be unfettered for the purpose of covering the Games. In the view of the leadership at Zhnongnanhai there is no reason to see a Falun Gong website or interview a farmer about weather or crop conditions.

And certainly no reason want to question ANYTHING issued by the government.

When China was awarded the Olympics a handful of people, mostly those who understood the Alice In Wonderland/Orwellian way the leaders in Beijing think, predicted that this exact problem would occur. Access means what the leaders says it means. Nothing more. Nothing less.

These folks predicted (and, yes, I was part of that group) that Beijing would look at coverage of the games in the most narrow sense.

The fact that so few media outlets (around the globe) failed to even discuss the possibility that unfettered access might mean something different to the censorship crazed Chinese government than what it means to a free and independent media is appalling.

I can't think what the non-US media were thinking, but with U.S. editors and publishers hooked on "Hyper-local" reporting, I guess the issue is just too foreign and too complicated. And as for our electronic breathern, there just isn't enough airtime to discuss this issue when it is much more important to get that report on about Britney's latest meltdown.