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Of the myriad problems in the media’s reporting on coronavirus, I think the most fundamental is treating China - an authoritarian regime willing to kill its citizens to save face - as just another country.
I’ll use this @WIRED piece to explain what I mean. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/trump-isnt-wrong-about-investigating-who/amp
I’ll use this @WIRED piece to explain what I mean. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/trump-isnt-wrong-about-investigating-who/amp
First, all of this is framed as a “right-wing” plan. The entire opening is meant for the reader to guard their loins, because the Bad Opinions are coming.
The first is that Trump accuses the @WHO of covering for China. That’s demonstrably true. Screenshots below.
The first is that Trump accuses the @WHO of covering for China. That’s demonstrably true. Screenshots below.
Now to @SenTomCotton, who has been baselessly smeared throughout this process.
Look how the rest of the media has covered his dogged pursuit of the truth and accountability here. WaPo debunks the story here https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html%3foutputType=amp and the WIRED piece grudgingly nods to it.
Look how the rest of the media has covered his dogged pursuit of the truth and accountability here. WaPo debunks the story here https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html%3foutputType=amp and the WIRED piece grudgingly nods to it.
And now, the classic. Time to pull in a totally unrelated case of America doing the thing that China did. And, of course, a Republican admin is the bad guy.
Has the US screwed up on the global stage? Of course! Does that make us equal to China? Of course not.
It should - but doesn’t seem to - go without saying that an authoritarian regime that oppressed its own people is a uniquely bad actor.
It should - but doesn’t seem to - go without saying that an authoritarian regime that oppressed its own people is a uniquely bad actor.
China has millions of Muslims in detainment camps. They’ve disappeared countless doctors and whistleblowers just since this pandemic got started. There are videos and reports of China’s wonton disregard for human rights during the pandemic (more here https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/12/human-toll-chinas-coronavirus-control-efforts)
And this false equivalence has real consequences. It clouds the judgment of the media in reporting on this.
Later in the piece you can see it. The “most likely scenario” is the kind of classic failure we would expect from a government.
Later in the piece you can see it. The “most likely scenario” is the kind of classic failure we would expect from a government.
Again, China is not some “institution of various kinds” responding to a “public relations crisis.”
It is a fundamentally bad actor manipulating information to benefit themselves at the expense of the world and the US/Europe. Which makes our reporters complacent...
It is a fundamentally bad actor manipulating information to benefit themselves at the expense of the world and the US/Europe. Which makes our reporters complacent...
WIRED concludes that @WHO isn’t beholden to China because China isn’t a major donor to @WHO. Why, then, would they push Chinese talking points?
A little incredulity, something conservative media has had on this case, would’ve served them well...
A little incredulity, something conservative media has had on this case, would’ve served them well...
While China may not be a huge @WHO donor, they were instrumental in the election of the current head of the WHO, @DrTedros.
Great reporting here by @peterjhasson for @DailyCaller about the ties between the two, and general corruption linked to @DrTedros: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dailycaller.com/2020/03/22/who-director-general-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-china-coronavirus-pandemic-cover-up
Great reporting here by @peterjhasson for @DailyCaller about the ties between the two, and general corruption linked to @DrTedros: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dailycaller.com/2020/03/22/who-director-general-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-china-coronavirus-pandemic-cover-up
So let’s look back on WIRED’s “most damning piece of evidence” related to @WHO and China:
Does anyone think there’s nothing untoward going on when the guy who has backed dictators like Mugabe and was elected with the help of China decides to pinch-hit for China TWO WEEKS after his org was notified that what they were saying was wrong? Just as global criticism peaks?
It bears repeating: the @WHO had already been notified that the PR they were going to put out was a lie.
And it wasn’t just one lie. They had a full-court press of information praising China that doesn’t come close to passing the laugh test. Screenshots below.
And it wasn’t just one lie. They had a full-court press of information praising China that doesn’t come close to passing the laugh test. Screenshots below.
And more here. Again, all from the guy with ties to China and a history of covering for dictators who screw up.
None of this, for some reason, makes its way into the piece by WIRED. It’s also shockingly absent from most media coverage.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s some vile conspiracy. I just don’t think they are willing to hold China to a reasonable standard or be frank about the country’s sins.
It’s classic Orientalism, just in new garb: Freud’s inscrutable Asian, reimagined for SJWs.
It’s classic Orientalism, just in new garb: Freud’s inscrutable Asian, reimagined for SJWs.
Which leads the WIRED piece to its unsurprising conclusion: maybe what China did was bad - and maybe the WHO with it - but it’s just normal bad. America bad.
And so the prescription is the usual incremental progress. Improve the system “bit by bit”
But this fundamentally misunderstands the scope of the problem. China is not just some other country.
We have a bad actor in China clearly able to manipulate the global flow of information for their own ends.
This isn’t a problem that can be addressed “bit by bit.”
We have a bad actor in China clearly able to manipulate the global flow of information for their own ends.
This isn’t a problem that can be addressed “bit by bit.”
There’s no free press in China to hold the Chinese government to account. There’s no accountability structure to root out bad actors in the global kumbaya orgs like the UN and WHO. Not when they’ve got veto power.
The Chinese government is evil.
The Chinese government is evil.
Until the media is able to grasp that and pivot accordingly, we aren’t going to get good reporting about a pandemic that started in China, whose global spread was accelerated by failures of the Chinese govt, and where global understanding is still hamstrung by China’s lies.
