Originally published November 16 2015
Reuters freaks out over China radio propaganda airing in USA, but says nothing about White House propaganda running the entire mainstream media
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Did Reuters really just discover that the Chinese government-media apparatus is really nothing more than a massive propaganda machine? Apparently, judging by the nature of a recently published "investigative report" that claims Beijing broadcasts "China-friendly" information in the Washington, D.C., radio market, as well as in other capitals around the world.
"The Chinese government controls much of the content broadcast on a station that is blanketing the U.S. capital with pro-Beijing programming. WCRW is part of an expanding global web of 33 stations in which China's involvement is obscured," the wire service reported.
According to the report, foreign ministers from ten countries criticized Beijing in August for building artificial islands in disputed waters in the South China Sea. As global media covered the diplomatic rift, one radio station that covers the city where all federal power is concentrated had a unique take on the news.
WCRW, which is located just outside Washington, D.C., did not mention China's provocative island-building projects. Rather, an analyst explained that tensions in the area were being generated by unnamed "external forces" that were attempting "to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims."
Why is this a big deal? China isn't the only country that does this
In other words, it's pure propaganda. If you look at where the islands are located, you can understand that given the accepted international standard of nations having a 200-mile economic exclusion zone off their coastlines, China's assertion that its manmade islands are "sovereign" is ridiculous on its face. Go to Google Maps and enter "Spratly Islands" and see for yourself.
Then again, it would be, given that WCRW never discloses that fact that the Chinese government itself controls most of what is aired on the station, which is heard on Capitol Hill and at the White House. This station is just one of a growing network of stations around the world that Beijing controls and is utilizing to push its version of global events.
"A Reuters investigation spanning four continents has identified at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that are part of a global radio web structured in a way that obscures its majority shareholder: state-run China Radio International, or CRI," the newswire reported.
Most of the stations are primarily broadcasting content that is either created or supplied by CRI or by media outlets it controls in the U.S., Australia and across Europe. Three Chinese businessmen expatriates act as CRI's local partners, and they run the companies and in some cases even own a stake in the stations. The network also reaches into markets from Finland to Nepal to Australia, and from Philadelphia to San Francisco on the U.S. mainland.
At WCRW, the Chinese government has a direct financial interest in the station's broadcasts. According to corporate records in the U.S. and China examined by Reuters, a Beijing-based subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster has a 60 percent interest in an American firm that leases nearly all of the station's airtime.
In fact, China has several state-run media properties like the Xinhua News Agency that are widely known around the world and known to contain carefully controlled, government-approved "news". Nevertheless, federal officials in the U.S. charged with monitoring foreign media ownership and propaganda admitted they did not know of the Chinese-controlled radio network operating inside the U.S. until they were contacted by Reuters.
Know who you can and cannot trust in the media
"A half-dozen former senior U.S. officials said federal authorities should investigate whether the arrangement violates laws governing foreign media and agents in the United States," the newswire reported.
What's amazing about the Reuters report is that the UK-based newswire service has chosen to single out China for its propaganda, even though U.S. and Western governments have been doing the same thing for decades to countries ruled by authoritarian regimes (like China).
For example, Voice of America is wholly "owned" and operated by the federal government; as The New York Times notes, VOA exists to present "America's viewpoint to the world."
In recent months, as reported by The Guardian, the European Union ramped up its own broadcast operation to "counter Russian propaganda" through promotion of "European values."
What's more, Reuters fails to mention that like the rest of the mainstream media, it has served as a sort of Pretorian guard for the Obama White House (and Democrats in general), protecting and defending this president and his staff from scandal after scandal. That is part and parcel why the alternative media – such as the growing network of news sites affiliated with Natural News – is getting bigger and more influential all the time.
Sources include:
Reuters.com
NationalSecurity.news
NYTimes.com
TheGuardian.com
NaturalNews.com
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