New York Occasions “disinformation” reporter Davey Alba made the entrance web page of Friday’s Enterprise part with one other hit piece on the rival, conservative newspaper The Epoch Occasions, an outlet backed by the China-based non secular motion of Falun Gong that has a powerful and for the Occasions, harmful, social media presence. It’s also a powerful opponent of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP), which in all probability annoys a few of the New York Occasions’ hard-left staffers.
The Epoch Occasions does have a breathless high quality to its protection, not all of which pans out. However the NYT’s abject horror over Epoch‘s very existence and obvious annoyance of its robust stance towards the thugs of the CCP (who’ve attacked the paper’s printing press) smacks of overkill. Now it’s being criticized for spreading COVID misinformation on the again of cute cat clips in “How Cute Cats Help Spread Misinformation Online.”
On Oct. 2, New Tang Dynasty Tv, a station linked to the Chinese language religious motion Falun Gong, posted a Fb video of a girl saving a child shark stranded on a shore. Subsequent to the video was a hyperlink to subscribe to The Epoch Occasions, a newspaper that’s tied to Falun Gong and that spreads anti-China and right-wing conspiracies. The submit collected 33,000 likes, feedback and shares.
“Anti-China”? To be towards the totalitarian Neighborhood Social gathering regime in China isn’t “anti-China,” irrespective of how the liberal Occasions want to conflate the 2.
Alba goes after a number of targets, however returns to Epoch Occasions and its terrible use of cute pet movies to attract in viewers, one thing certainly by no means performed earlier than in historical past.
Now, it’s turning into more and more clear how extensively the old-school web trick is being utilized by individuals and organizations peddling false data on-line, misinformation researchers say.
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Maybe no group deploys the tactic as forcefully as Epoch Media, guardian firm of The Epoch Occasions. Epoch Media has printed movies of cute animals in 12,062 posts on its 103 Fb pages prior to now yr, in accordance with an evaluation by The New York Occasions….
Alba even tracked down the unique licensors of these harmful animal movies.
Mike Skogmo, Jukin Media’s senior vp for advertising and marketing and communications, mentioned his firm had a licensing cope with New Tang Dynasty Tv, the station tied to Falun Gong.
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Requested whether or not the corporate evaluated whether or not their clips have been used as engagement bait for misinformation in putting the license offers, Mr. Skogmo mentioned Jukin had nothing else so as to add.
The Epoch Occasions is the New York Occasions‘ favourite whipping boy. Tech reporter Kevin Roose made a Sunday entrance web page with successful piece: “How an Obscure Newspaper Turned a Bullhorn for the Far Proper.” The Occasions itself by no means goes after the CCP with the identical vigor.
Alba previously referred to as Epoch “a prime purveyor of conspiracy theories and political misinformation” and once more faulted it for “usually publish[ing] anti-Chinese language Communist Social gathering content material.” (A month later, the paper’s printing press in Hong Kong was smashed up, certainly on the instigation of the CCP. Maybe Epoch has some extent?)
The Occasions even went after the paper for having been handed out by white people in Wisconsin.
