Talking About Conservative Propaganda, Part IV: A Reply to 'The Epoch Times' and Its Anti-NBC News Editiorial

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Recently, the right-wing leaning Epoch Times ran an open letter criticizing NBC News for daring to ask its staff questions about the newspaper's guiding principles (staunch anti-Communism, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China, strong support for Donald Trump, and its connections with the banned-in-China Falun Gong movement). In it, publisher Stephen Gregory figuratively wrings his hands when an established media outlet dares to suggest it is biased in favor of Trump and other conservatives because Epoch Times founder John Tang and his partners hate China and its current government and are consistent supporters of right-wing movements throughout the world.

Here are some of Gregory's "woe-is-us, we are an honest newspaper" comments:

Last week, we were contacted by two NBC reporters who posed a series of highly inappropriate questions.

The NBC reporters questioned the religious beliefs of some of our staff members, sought to discredit their beliefs, attacked our journalism based on personal opinion rather than objective analysis, and even sought out information on the personal lives of our staff.

In responding to NBC with this open letter, we are not only defending The Epoch Times, but also journalism itself, freedom of the press, and freedom of belief.

As a fast-growing independent media, we proudly uphold the highest standards of journalism. 

NBC asked directly about our having an agenda with this question: Much of the Epoch Times’ recent coverage has focused on the promotion of President Trump’s policies, interviews with surrogates, and a “deep state” conspiracy to “spy” on his campaign during the 2016 election. Do you feel like this is a fair characterization and do you consider the Epoch Times to be pro-Trump?

Note that Gregory uses conservative propagandists' favorite buzzwords (independent media) to differentiate Epoch Times from the right's bane, "mainstream media."  He also cloaks his faux outrage by wrapping himself in the banners of religious liberty and freedom of the press.

And on Quora, Trump supporter Cindy Merrill asks:

Is it Possible for Liberal Media to get much lower?

Here is my response:

The Epoch Times?

Seriously? You chose to try to score some points against the “libs” and “mainstream media” by choosing to highlight an article from the Epoch Times?

Don’t be silly. The Epoch Times, to put it mildly, is as trustworthy and unbiased as, oh, I don’t know….Breitbart or Info Wars.

For those of you who have not heard of the Epoch Times “newspaper,” it is a right-wing newspaper associated with a Chinese spiritual movement called Falun Gong (which is forbidden by the People’s Republic of China). Its flagship edition (and most widely read) edition is the Chinese language newspaper founded 19 years ago by John Tang. The English-language edition was first published in web form in 2003; the print edition followed one year later. (All in all, there are 11 editions of Epoch Times in print form, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Czech, Slovak, Turkish, Portuguese, and Persian, as well as the abovementioned Chinese and English-language editions. In addition, Epoch Times has 21 Internet-only editions that cater exclusively to conservative readers.)

As someone who studied journalism and mass communications, I do not consider Epoch Times to be a serious or objective publication. On the contrary, like Breitbart News and CRTV.com, it is biased, unobjective, and is bereft of any value as a source of real journalism.

I mean, seriously. How can one say Epoch Times has clean hands and good intentions when its editorial stances are so obviously slanted toward the extreme right of the conservative spectrum?

To wit:

Over the past few years, Epoch Times’ German edition has sided with far-right wing organizations such as Pegida and the “National Democratic Party.” In the U.S., the New York-based edition is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.

In October 2018, Jasper Fakkert, Epoch Times’ editor-in-chief, wrote in a letter to readers: "We see the Trump administration's efforts to change socialist policies in America, as well as set policies to counter infiltration and subversion by China, as remarkable reversals from past policies, and sincere efforts that, if fully realized, will benefit America and the world as a whole."

Ha. “Liberal media” is not getting much lower.

Right-wing media? That’s another story altogether.