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Gulf opens between residents and official media over floods

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The news footage on Beijing Television showing Beijing party secretary Guo Jinlong having instant noodles at an emergency meeting over the deadly July 21 flood in the early hours of the following morning lasted only for about three seconds.

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But it was quickly picked up by Chu Tian Jin Bao, a publication affiliated to provincial party mouthpiece Hubei Daily in Hubei province, as a testament to selflessness and hard work of the Beijing party secretary.

'A moving scene - the 65-year-old Beijing party secretary eating instant noodles at flood control headquarters,' the newspaper said in a microblog entry on Tuesday. 'He's still working on the front lines even though it's already 2am. He's sustaining himself with only instant noodles; how could people not be moved!'

The praise was quickly met with disdain from other quarters, where it was dismissed as sycophancy.

'If an official eating a container of instant noodles is a big deal, that only proves how bureaucratic and corrupt most officials are and how servile our people have become to admire those in power for such an inconsequential act,' one internet commentator said in a posting online.

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Another commentator added: 'People should not be impressed with this - it's his responsibility to reach out to the people; it's what he is supposed to do.'

Guangming Daily commented on a divide between, on the one hand, so-called mainstream media outlets, particularly those controlled by municipal governments, and, on the other, social media platforms and a few outlets from outside Beijing, over their coverage of the worst rains to hit the capital in six decades.

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