There has been a lot of excellent reporting in the past few weeks about the changing situation of the news media here. Increasing government oversight, the tendency to keep a lid on negative news, and some harsh treatment when reporters step out of line. Some great information on these topics in general can be found on Danwei, Rebecca MacKinnon's RConversation, and many other media-centric sources.

Another piece of the puzzle was put forward yesterday by Tim Johnson, who has been doing a lot of writing on the Olympics. Apparently the press is being given explicit instructions to stay away from negative Olympics/related stories.  His point is that international public opinion and scrutiny of China has been ratcheted up because of the Olympic Games.

Yesterday's economic statistics, which I wrote about earlier today, is perhaps the last piece of the puzzle. The disruptive effects of inflation are quite well known, and there are examples of this not only throughout world history, but also in the recent Chinese past. You can bet your ass that the folks in Beijing that are keeping a watchful eye on the price data are well aware of the potential social and political effects of inflation. It would not surprise me, therefore, that some of this media crackdown has been prompted by economic worries.