2009 Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Peace Prize is a "premature canonization" and an "embarrassment to the Nobel process." "Slate magazine" blogger Mickey Kaus, "New York Times" columnist David Brooks and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton amongst others, called for Obama to not accept the award; pundit Michael Crowley argued that it was a "mixed blessing". Subsequent to the award many Americans now consider that Obama did not deserve it in the light of following events. Opponents of the award cite the expansion of the War on Terror and the large increase in the number of drone strikes carried out under Obama, specifically in Pakistan.
2010 Nobel Peace Prize day. China Central Television's main evening news programme, "Xinwen Lianbo", did not report on it. Chinese journalists and dissidents said the Central Propaganda Department had instructed media to censor or otherwise under-report on Liu Xiaobo and the peace prize award. The Chinese government ordered the deletion of all print and broadcast stories on the topic; In an editorial, the Communist Party–run "Global Times" attacked the Nobel Peace Prize as a "political tool of Western interests" that was being used to foment "endless political strife in Chinese society, causing a Soviet-style breakup." Another "Global Times" article said the award was "another