Chinese newscasters must really like Top Gun.

I just read about this on a friend of mine’s Facebook wall, and it was just too good to pass up. It seems that [CCTV][1], China’s state run television network, recently reported on a training exercise carried out by the [Chinese air force][2]. To make the story more eye-catching, they added footage of the exercise showing a Chinese fighter pilot shooting and destroying another fighter plane with an air-to-air missile. It all sounds normal enough so far. Just a standard display of military prowess—nothing unusual here, right? Well, nothing except one small detail that CCTV failed to mention: It turns out the dramatic, “authentic” clip isn’t quite so authentic after all. Instead, China Central Television appears to have [appropriated the footage from Tom Cruise’s hit film, Top Gun][3]. Check out the Wall Street Journal’s [side-by-side comparison][4], which I’ve also embedded below for your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqbFhTxbQvc [1]: http://english.cntv.cn/01/index.shtml [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Air_Force [3]: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50376/ [4]: http://online.wsj.com/video/cctv-tries-to-pass-off-top-gun-clip-as-real/43EC0FC2-A440-4522-8E81-437EC747D30A.html