Wikipedia Editors Attack China Critic ‘Epoch Times’ After NBC Hit Piece

Breitbart ^ | 27 Aug 2019 | T.D. Adler

[KC_Lion]

After NBC News published a hit piece on news outlet the Epoch Times and its association with the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted by China’s government, the Wikipedia page for the outlet was vandalized and filled with attacks sourced to the piece. One editor involved has a history of attacking Falun Gong and defending Chinese communist figures such as Mao Zedong.

The editor also contacted an Antifa-supporting socialist editor with a similar history, which included downplaying the oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. Other Wikipedia articles associated with Falun Gong have also been subject to smears from Antifa-supporting editors.

NBC published a report last Tuesday regarding the Epoch Times and its surge of success due largely to its hard-hitting coverage on alleged improprieties in the discredited Russiagate investigation. In their report, NBC smeared this coverage as pushing a “Spygate” conspiracy theory, even though reporters for Epoch Times obtained early access to testimony before the House Intelligence Committee for which they were noted in the New York Times. The report also smeared the outlet for its association with the spiritual movement Falun Gong, perpetuating narratives used to justify China’s decades-long repression of the movement.

Following the NBC report, the Epoch Times Wikipedia page was updated with various attacks from the piece, including those smearing its Spygate coverage as conspiracy theories. Also included were claims the outlet promoted the “QAnon” conspiracy theories....

...

In addition to the edits incorporating details from NBC’s report, the page was repeatedly vandalized by users referencing the negative characterizations from the NBC story. This included calling the site “pro-Trump propaganda”, claiming it was “run by an end-of-the-world cult”, and accusing it of “anti-democratic actions” despite the outlet’s primary focus being to highlight the authoritarian actions of the Chinese government.

[KC_Lion]

"One incident cited by Cheng in that report involved the editor criticizing the socialist Antifa-supporting editor “Tsumikiria” for restoring material to the article on Shen Yun, a dance show put on by Falun Gong members, which made claims about the movement unrelated to the show. The material cited a letter to the editor in a small Florida paper. While NBC’s recent coverage appears to have prompted some improvements to the Shen Yun article, the section discussing critical reception has a significantly negative slant focused on the show’s Falun Gong-related messaging. Cheng also contacted editor “Simonm223” about NBC’s coverage. Like Cheng, Simon has a history of editing favorable to China. On the Xinjiang conflict article, Simon repeatedly removed material describing allegations of torture and brainwashing of Uyghurs and other Muslims occurring at Chinese re-education camps in the province. He claimed Western media sources weren’t reliable enough to treat the allegations as fact, even though the material only identified them as allegations. While the article on the camps themselves are much more critical, only sparse reference is made of them in the article on the actual conflict due to Simon’s resistance. Breitbart News has been a leader in reporting on the Chinese concentration camps."

The Walter Durantys of our time.

[Mr. K]

who cares? Wikipedia is useless for anything political.

it’s as bad as Snopes

[humblegunner]

Also included were claims the outlet promoted the “QAnon” conspiracy

How dare they claim such a thing!

They should all be sentenced to six years in Hillary's kindergarten
sex dungeons on Mars. Nothing can stop what is coming.

[\/\/ayne]

Also Robert Conrad is angry at Wikipedia, says his age is wrong by a couple of years. He would go and give them a flying kick but he might break his hip.

[stinkerpot65]

Democrats are evil scum

[DoughtyOne]

Epock Times will get still more free publicity.

Excellent!

[Nateman]

Wikipedia is useless for anything political.

Yep. The liars who need the lies to continue clearly use their stolen loot to pay monitors of the site. I've heard any edits of Islam to bring articles up to anywhere near the truth don't even last for minutes.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Revel]

The strategy of the left is to attack any and all sources of news that are conservative. It is not even enough to verbally assault them. The left has been working relentlessly to have them all shut down. Using the methods of banning, and also getting Service providers to dump anyone who dares to stand up for moral conservative principles, and those who support Donald Trump.

When it comes to forums then they even go to those sites and post inflammatory information. They then take screenshots before those posts can be removed. Then they use that against those sites.

And yes the FBI was caught red handed doing that on 8chan. And I mean they were caught completely red handed. The FBI documented the proof themselves without even knowing it. They documented that the offending posts were made by themselves because “(you)” appeared in the screenshot of the post(which the FBI listed as evidence). And only the person who made the post will see that. The same person who made the post also took the FBI screenshot.

[dp0622]

They read a lot more unbiased than snopes, I think.

But what do I know? :)

[ifinnegan]

MSM is going to try to smear any news outlet that reports actual news.

If it weren’t run by Chinese people (it began as a Chinese paper and still is, of course - English edition came much later) they’d call it white supremacist or alt-right.

[ifinnegan]

Yes. Exactly.

[ifinnegan]

“They read a lot more unbiased than snopes, I think.”

Yes. It’s a lot better than Snopes.

But it us true that too many entries with political implications are biased to the left.

For example, with McCabe going to be possibly indicted, I read the entry in him the other day. It addresses the charges but is written in a way that presents a one sided defense of him.

[dp0622]

Yeah there’s definitely a slant there.

but snopes once called the new testament and aberration.

I don’t know if he’s Jewish or not but i got LOTS of Jewish friends and they would NEVER say such a thing.

It was MANY years ago I read that on snopes and I never opened his page again.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. HOORAY Epoch Times!

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I’ve read the Epoch Times for at least ten years, long before it began showing up on Free Republic, which was probably only 2-3 years ago.

It was glaringly obvious after reading it about four or five times that it was connected to Falun Gong. My only question about this supposed expose is “what took them so long?” Probably the fact that the Epoch Times is now advertising on You Tube.

When you read the paper there’s always a Falun Gong persecution story in each issue. The connection that masquerades as no connection is very similar to how the Moonies have these non-descript sounding groups like “International Group for Peace”, or “Global Family Foundation”, and when you read their material they are giving out humanitarian awards, and lo and behold, they’ve chosen Reverend Moon to get one.

And BTW, I know some long-time Moonies, and I even accepted an invitation to see Moon speak a few years before he died, at a major hotel function room. Boring, but hardly sinister. I’m also aware that the Moonies bankroll the Washington Times, which has never stopped me from reading it.

I don’t have any particular beef with the Falun Gong people. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t know what agenda they have other than really not liking the Chicoms.

I don’t know what kind of threat they pose to the Chicoms, other than the fact that they are a social movement not controlled by the Party. The only thing I find a bit shady is that they deny there’s any structure or organization to it, and there obviously is.

That may be defensive, but when they claim that all their works are just the coincidental spontaneous outpouring of sentiment by hundreds or thousands of completely unconnected people, all just meditating on their own, it doesn’t pass the laugh test.

[ifinnegan]

I’m not sure what your point is.

Of course this is a FaLun Gong related publication.

That’s never been a secret.

FaLun Gong have been among the few groups willing to stand up to the communist party since the Tiananmen Square massacre and the most effective one.

Yeah, I think their beliefs are goofy. So what?

The reason the MSM is against them now is competition and ideology.

The Epoch Times is a real competitor now, mainly because it reports actual news the MSM will not, and this relates to the ideology. The MSM won’t report it because it could harm Dems and leftists. Consequently, Epoch Times gets traffic that NBC could get if it actually reported news.

[KC_Lion]

You are welcome PGalt :)

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I basically agree with you. They’re goofy, but they fill a niche. As does the Washington times.

I’m just surprised that they have finally gotten sufficient visibility for the mainstream media to actually acknowledge they exist at all. Then the mainstream media immediately discrediteds the publication by linking it to the Falun Gong, and portraying the link as if it was all part of some some deep, dark secret plot by sinister forces that would have remained unknown to the public except for the intrepid work of the vigilant mainstream media.

When it’s been there in plain site all along.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I just picked up a copy of the Epoch Times at my local Walgreens tonight. It’s the first time I saw it for sale in a regular store. I became familiar with it when it distributed free in newspaper boxes in downtown San Francisco, and never saw it anywhere else before now. It’s much more professional looking than it used to be.

It’s the first newspaper I’ve paid money for in probably two or three years.