PureInsight | December 22, 2003
[PureInsight.org]
I did not participate in a lot of work in the TV group, but felt everything I did had something to do with my own cultivation. Sometimes, I wanted to do it better, to the best I could be, and therefore, felt it difficult to do the TV program. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking, but if I'm too attached to it, this may lead to a sense of extreme difficulty for me, and I'll feel overwhelmed. With this mind of pursuing perfection fervently, it often resulted in an incomplete program, an impasse or a program that I felt was satisfactory, but not to fellow practitioners. When I looked into this further, I found other attachments as well. For example, I wanted to use the program to show my talent and ability, hoped my program would get recognition and admiration from others, and considered what I wanted to do as being very important. Of course, when these attachments loom large, I often received a timely reminder from Master.
The first time I made a 15-minute special program, I felt good about my doing it well. Yet, there was a lot of interference during the production process. I ran out of time, the software stopped working, and in the end, I hastily made a crude and roughly edited program, hoping to get feedback from a fellow practitioner on the overall design of the make-shift program. What I did not anticipate was that this practitioner suggested all practitioners look at the program together and give feedback together, after a large group Fa study session. Immediately, feedback from 20 some practitioners struck to me like "sharp swords." I was left to think that nothing was right with my work, I was being laughed at and felt very uncomfortable. With a strong sense of pretentiousness, I even considered suggestions from fellow practitioners not benevolent. That night, I was so tired mentally and physically, that I could not help crying for a long time after I got home. I also suffered from a headache for a long time. Finally, I realized my strong attachment and suddenly felt immensely relieved. Also, I was able to calmly recall fellow practitioners' suggestions and made changes to the program accordingly. Wisdom seemed to have come as well. And after the program was finally aired, it surprised all of them. They felt it was exceptionally good.
My other experience was, that as one of the media of ordinary human society, our professional appearance in public will make it easier for ordinary people to understand and accept us. This is evidenced in what our media group experienced during the Sino-American Relations Symposium at Texas A&M University not too long ago. Back then, the Chinese Government inculcated a media coordinator of the symposium with lots of negative information and pressured him, in order not to let our TV and newspaper reporters cover the event. Therefore, the sponsor of the event never replied to our application. At that time, a practitioner reminded us all that we are in America. So no organization has the right to accept coverage by other media, but refuse ours for a public event, unless they are being discriminatory. With righteous thoughts being sent, our TV group in Dallas sent a fax to the organizer, briefly explaining what kind of TV station we were, that we had participated in, among other things, news briefings of US Government officials many times, and that we wanted to cover this symposium. The newspaper team did likewise. Both teams received a faxed reply, allowing us to cover the first activity of the symposium, the speeches by Bush and Powell.
On the day of the event, as we arrived at the site, symposium personnel seemed very nervous. The media coordinator of the symposium, Tom, personally told us, "You must appear to be very professional. You can't make any abrupt movements, otherwise you will be asked to leave. Don't do this (he showed a posture of holding a banner)." He also said that the Chinese Government personnel were there to find any excuse to kick us out. Practitioners told him that we would not do that, as we were reporters. After that, all of us moved into our positions, holding cameras, taking pictures, taking notes, etc. During the speech, everything went fine with no problem at all. After the conference, Tom made a point of shaking hands with us one by one. He was all smiling and said cheerfully, "You are wonderful, very cooperative. Thank you very much." Practitioners then asked him from whom he heard that we would have such behavior, he said contemptuously, "You know whom." In actuality, we did not tell him anything about the truth of Dafa, but only showed him our professional appearance and then won his trust. After that, we were welcomed to attend every session.
In an afternoon session, a Chinese person expressed his dissatisfaction over the American media's often negative reporting of news about China. The American host replied by saying that American media are commercial organizations, and the U.S. Government has no right to interfere with their operation or ask them to report what the government likes, other than reminding them to report accurately. He thinks that American media are fairly unbiased in the world. China has its good side, as well as its dark side. The media can choose to report whatever they want, because that's their own business. During the break, we talked with Tom about this. He said, "I found these Chinese people really have a different view about media. But I think they got a lesson this time." He looked at us, smiling, and emphasized, "An excellent lesson."
Through our brief interactions, Tom demonstrted that he now trusted us. While being subjected to repeated complaints from the Chinese Government, he calmly issued press passes to our newspaper reporters, who did not apply for one beforehand. We realized that Americans, who are used to living in a free society, really find the unwarranted demands of the Chinese Government rather distasteful. All the lies of the Chinese Government are disproved when we appear in public openly, justly and honorably, because we Dafa disciples are ourselves the truth.
I also realized the importance of cultivating as one body through my participation in TV work.
For a while, I was feeling our TV team was kind of hopeless. We only had 2-3 people working diligently, but without improving, without news sources, and without involvement in the community. During group Fa studies, there were different proposals to do this or that, but when it came to actually doing it, it always looked like it was extremely difficult , and there seemed to be nobody there to do it. I often felt a sense of painfully sustaining and maintaining it.
Once, I asked another practitioner to go with me to interview an Asian American candidate running for a city council position. I told her that there were too few people on the TV group. She was surprised and said, "Really? I saw so many people in the meeting every time and thought there were lots of you working on that! If it turns out you are really short handed, then I can help you. I was interested in news reports of the Western media before I started my cultivation." I was really delighted. This practitioner speaks very good English, is a member of the translation team and is very capable. It was great she volunteered to help. From then on, she joined us in the TV team, provided us with news leads, and from time to time interviewed and helped with coordination. After that, there were other practitioners who also expressed interest in helping us. For a while, we felt there were too many valuable local news items, which had never happened before. In addition, since we have more people in the TV group, we flund a regular time to share with each other, watch the footage that had been filmed and make suggestions. We all felt it was very beneficial. Later on, this exchange and sharing were expanded to include practitioners working on the "Epoch Times" newspaper.
During the process, my overall feeling is that since all of us are committed to doing it, the obstacles in front of us becomes easy to overcome, which were very difficult to surpass when there were only a few of us.
Not too long ago, at an All Chinese Democracy Alliance conference in Houston, disciples from DC did something well. Because some of them were board members of the Alliance and clarified truth to Alliance members before, they were able to show a special program made by NTDTV for the organization. Some 400 VCD's were made and one was given to each of the participants of the meeting. This helped greatly our Houston TV team reach out to our community. After the conference, the Deputy Director of the Chinese Culture Center in Houston asked us to help with making a special program for their conference.
Finally, I would like to conclude by saying:
(1) Compared to other Chinese media, we have advantages as well as disadvantages. Our main disadvantage is that we don't do this full-time. We have our own jobs as well as many other Dafa projects. The amount of time we can spend on the TV team is limited. Furthermore, we often can't go there to report news events as they happen in real time. But we also have advantages. In general, we speak better English than reporters who work for other Chinese media. Their command of English is usually very limited, and it restricts them from contacting people outside the Chinese community. We should use our advantage and be more active in the mainstream American society. In general, it is a relatively easy thing to do, since the idea of an open press is very fundamental to American society, and people usually welcome you with open arms when they hear you are from a TV station. For example, even when President Bush comes to town, we just need to call the White House Press Office a few hours ahead of time and register ourselves, and we are allowed to cover the event.
(2) I feel we need to have better overall coordination. Each news piece takes a long time to produce. I often see certain pieces that are not used. There should be a brief explanation of the reason why it isn't used. This way, people can learn and make improvements.
(3) In general, the more we act like a professional reporters, the more likely people will treat us as such. If we are nervous and unsure, people will start to doubt us, too.
(4) We should expand the scope of our coverage. In a real US TV news program, they often have consumer reporters who report things that interest consumers, like credit card deals. They also have health reporters who report health news. This type of consumer and health news attracts the attention of ordinary people, and also is not as time sensitive.
