“Old Jia, are you the one who review this special episode?” The Station Chief looked at Deputy Station Chief Jia with a serious look. “Yes. I am the one who gave the approval. Is there any problem?” Deputy Station Chief Jia replied.
“Old Jia, you are also a senior official. Don’t you know the implications of exposing such news?” The station chief knocked on his desk and asked.
“Of course, I knew what will happen. But I cannot let the people be deceived.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. But shouldn’t you inform me before you film this episode? Was there a need to blow up this matter? Now the whole nation is monitoring this matter closely. Our station’s phone lines are ringing nonstop!”
“So what? This is the result we wanted for making this episode. We must expose those matters which the higher-ups had overlooked, and the citizens are concerned with. Isn’t this the core of these two programs?” Chief Jia was not afraid as he knew what he did was not wrong.
“Old Jia, don’t you understand what I am trying to tell you? Do you know that this news had been picked up by foreign media?”
“At least this is still better than the foreign media reporting about this incident first.” Chief Jia argued.
Chief Jia also did not expect this news to be so sensational. There were even people calling CCTV to scold them. If CCTV had not advertised these products, they would not have bought those fake products. But the majority of the calls to the station were to praise their programs for exposing these unscrupulous company. This particular episode was a hit with the viewers!
“Old Jia, tell me, who told you about this news and who was the one who sent these products to the individual institutions for tests?”
“Manager Feng of Songjiang Motors.”
“Songjiang Motors Manager Feng? That Manager Feng who was praised by the Chief Architect?”
When Station Chief saw Deputy Chief Jia nodded, he was troubled. This Feng Yu was someone who was praised by the great Chief Architect. He can’t pin all the blame to him!
Although he was the CCTV Station Chief, his rank was only a deputy director. He had already received multiple calls to ask CCTV to film another special episode for the enterprises under their charge a chance. They should not kill off all these enterprises. There was a negative impact on the country’s reputation.
Those people who called the Station Chief had good relationships with him. Some of them were former classmates, some were Provincial governors or deputy governors. All of them held higher ranks than the station chief. There was even a secretary of a top official from the central committee calling him to reprimand him for creating trouble for a province! This province was the province whom the official was in charge of before his transfer. It was also the province that the Chinese Turtle Essence Company was based in!
If it was one or two calls, the Station Chief could still handle the stress. But with so many leaders calling him, he was going crazy!
“Tell me what we should do now?” The Station Chief looked at Deputy Chief Jia bitterly. If the higher-ups were to look for a scapegoat, you would also be in trouble!
“I think……”
When Deputy Chief Jia was about to speak, the Station Chief’s secretary rushed into the room: “Station Chief, Vice-premier Zhu is on the line.”
Vice-premier Zhu? Even this person is calling? This person was the Vice-premier of the state council. Because of the health issues of the Premier, Vice-premier Zhu was the one leading the state council. He was calling now. It seems that there was no chance for the Station Chief to retire in his current position.
“I am CCTV’s Xiao He. What instructions do you have for me? Go to your office with that reporter and the person in charge of the program? Yes. I will go over immediately.”
The Station Chief looked at his watch. It was almost 9 pm. Seems like Vice Premier Zhu had learned about this incident.
“Old Jia, call Xiao Sui. Vice Premier Zhu wants to meet us. Old Jia, the both us is already so old, and we had worked together for so many years. If there are any punishments, both of us should take on all the responsibilities. We should not let Xiao Sui and the rest of the production team be punished.” The Station Chief was feeling very depressed.
“Station Chief. Let me shoulder all the blame. You are about to retire. You should not be punished at this time.” Deputy Chief Jia had a hint of remorse. He should notify the local authorities to look into this matter before he aired this episode.
“Xiao Sui, is there any part of this news falsely fabricated?” Iron-fist Zhu asked.
“No! I am the one who had conducted all the interviews. If there are any false elements in this news, I will take on all the responsibilities!” Sui Junyi replied.
“I am not blaming you. You are a reporter, and you should be reporting the truth. What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. You had done nothing wrong. The production team and CCTV had done nothing wrong.”
“Sir, we are wrong. We should report to the higher-ups and inform the provinces involved to let them handle this incident before airing the episode.” The Station Chief lowered his head and said.
“No. This is the right way to expose them. If you let them know in advance, they will find ways to cover up this incident. This is a good program. Tomorrow I will make a trip to CCTV to meet the production team. The state council will issue a statement tomorrow. Prepare 5 minutes of the evening news for me.”
The next day, Station Chief and the rest of the deputy station chiefs received lots of phone calls in the morning. Everyone was trying to make use of their connections to try to get CCTV to film a special episode for them. They want to change their image. The leader of China’s National Sports Committee had also called to ask for the removal of Coach Ma’s involvement in this incident. He claims that Coach Ma was also a victim in this incident.
In the late afternoon, when all the workers were about to report off, they saw the Station Chief and all the other leaders in CCTV standing at the entrance. After a while, the workers saw Iron-fist Zhu walking in.
Iron-Fist Zhu looked around the CCTV for a while and walked straight to the office of and .
Iron-Fist Zhu asked a few questions and also answered some queries by the production team members. Station Chief also invited him to write a few words of encouragement and appreciation to the team, but he refused. He does not like to do such things. He felt that this was not a good practice. However, he said a sentence to the team: Monitoring the public opinions, the voice of the people, a mirror to the government, frontline soldiers of the reforms!
This sentence was his affirmation and support to the production team. When he was saying this sentence, it was recorded on film by the reporters. This will be edited and aired during the evening news.
At the same time, Iron-Fist Zhu reveals the nation’s response to this incident. All the factories that manufacture those fake health products will be shut down, and refunds will be made to the consumers. Hefty fines will be imposed on the companies whose ingredients were lacking in their products. All the false advertisements must be stopped, and the companies will be taken to task!
Iron-Fist Zhu also reprimanded CCTV for not checking the products when they place advertisements. Although advertising revenue was essential to CCTV, they should take more precautions and must prevent this from happening again in the future!
During the evening news, the audiences saw the Vice Premier of the State Council announced a statement on the health product industry. He was upset by what happened. The departments that were supposed to examine products will be severely punished! The relevant departments will also conduct their internal investigations. The Provincial Governments that were involved will also be punished. At the same time, all Provincial Governments have to perform checks and investigations in their provinces. There must not be any fake health products or drugs in the market. If any fake health products or medicines were discovered, the local government of that place would be punished!
When Iron-Fist Zhu said this, he was very firm and had expressed his determination to end this incident. His words also let those local government officials think twice from trying to cover up such events.
There was finally a response from the Central Government. While all the provincial and city governments’ officials were busily clearing the aftermath of this incident, Feng Yu was whistling and driving to CCTV. Chief Jia had repaid Feng Yu by contacting him for the advertising slots free up by those fake advertisements.
