Posted on 06/20/2019 4:10:46 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Dear Readers,
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.
The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 with the goal of bringing truthful and uncensored news to people around the world. Our founders personally experienced the horrors of communism in China.
In our reporting, we have continually exposed the crimes of communism against humanity. For doing this, we have sustained ongoing attacks. Ten of our staff members were arrested in China and given prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.
Unfortunately, the bane of journalism today is the all-too-common practice of writing news to conform to a pre-existing narrative or agenda. This is what The Epoch Times has sought to avoid in all that we do. The best journalism of the past had the truth as its standard, not political advantage.
NBC’s questions seek to dig out what they assume is our agenda by asking about our coverage of President Donald Trump and our relationship with the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.
It certainly does appear that NBC has an agenda with respect to covering the Trump presidency. A study by Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy found that NBC’s coverage of Trump’s first 100 days in office was 93 percent negative.
The plain truth is that because The Epoch Times’ coverage of Trump differs from that of NBC, two reporters have sought to hunt for an agenda that would discredit us.
And the story they have in mind is no small undertaking. For weeks, ex-staff members have been contacting us to let us know that NBC had been asking about their work at The Epoch Times. What a great deal of effort has been put into this story.
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?
The question substitutes supposition for evidence. The failure to take a factual approach leaves up in the air the characterization of our journalism, and NBC is free to assert their opinions about what we do.
Other questions want to draw conclusions from the private lives of our staff, as in this offering: Is the Epoch Times predominantly staffed by volunteers? Do some Epoch Times interns, volunteers, or employees live in a shared home?
This is simply inappropriate. What bearing do individuals’ living arrangements have on the journalism of The Epoch Times? Would NBC ask New York Times journalists if they share an apartment? This digging into private lives can have only one motivation: to find something that can be used to discredit The Epoch Times.
And then there are questions about the spiritual practice Falun Gong.
It seems that all or most of the Epoch Times reporters and editors and executives are also Falun Gong practitioners. How does the practice of Falun Gong inform or influence the Epoch Times’ coverage?
The question assumes that individuals’ personal beliefs are a fit subject of inquiry. Would NBC ask about the role of the faith in the work of a New York Times reporter who happened to be Jewish?
The question is meant to root out the agenda NBC is looking for. In doing so, it tramples on our society’s long-held conviction that matters of conscience are rightly private. But much of today’s journalism has no problem with stripping away the customary attitudes that protected freedom of belief.
Another question asks directly about the spiritual beliefs of Falun Gong practitioners:
One former Epoch Times executive and practitioner claims that Falun Gong practitioners believe that the world will soon see a “weeding out process” that will pit those who are sympathetic to Falun Dafa against those who are sympathetic to the Chinese government. Is this a fair characterization? And does the Epoch Times editorial staff believe this?
NBC’s characterization of Falun Gong puts its beliefs in a false light, is similar to the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda attacking Falun Gong, and has the surely unintended effect of helping the CCP justify its 20-year-long persecution of Falun Gong.
At the same time, this straw man that NBC puts forward and links to The Epoch Times has one purpose: discrediting our journalism.
In response to NBC’s questions, we issue the following official statement:
We are committed to reporting the facts on the Trump administration, even as many other media have resorted to selective reporting and, in some cases, spread inaccurate information. The Epoch Times’ position on and approach to reporting on the Trump administration is described in this October 2018 letter to our readers.
The Epoch Times is not funded by Falun Gong practitioners, nor does it speak for Falun Gong practitioners. That said, The Epoch Times sees the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and the remarkable and heroic ways in which practitioners have responded to that persecution, as one of the most underreported stories of the last 20 years. Our founders included Falun Gong practitioners, and our values of “Truth and Tradition” reflect their moral principles.
Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, only addresses spiritual issues with his disciples. He has no role in The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times, which was incorporated by John Tang, is primarily funded through advertising and subscriptions.
We take advantage of different marketing platforms to grow our subscriber base, including Facebook. On Facebook, we use video ads to drive subscriptions. The Epoch Times’ subscription advertisements have no political agenda. The only reason some of them are run as “political advertising” is that online platforms require them to be categorized as such.
The Epoch Times is staffed by full-time and part-time paid employees as well as contractors and freelance contributors, and we believe that a person’s belief system is their own business.
The Epoch Times and NTD Television, while they are sister media, are entirely separate entities. While we are aware of the entertainment show “Edge of Wonder,” which was founded by former Epoch Times staff, The Epoch Times is in no way connected with it, as the show’s website makes clear.
Our free press has special privileges in our society, as suggested by the term “The Fourth Estate.” In order to defend those privileges, the press must show it is acting in a responsible manner. In responding to NBC, The Epoch Times seeks to vindicate our media and, in doing so, the role the press should play in our society.
Sincerely,
Stephen Gregory Publisher, U.S. editions
This open letter was updated on June 20, 2019, to include the background story of The Epoch Times.
Sadly, NBC siding with the totalitarians who run Communist China doesn’t come as a surprise.
“Xinhua News Agency, the official news organization of the Communist Party, declared that Falun Gong is “opposed to the Communist Party of China and the central government, preaches idealism, theism and feudal superstition.”[164] Xinhua also asserted that “the so-called ‘truth, kindness and forbearance’ principle preached by [Falun Gong] has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve”, and argued that it was necessary to crush Falun Gong to preserve the “vanguard role and purity” of the Communist Party.[165] Other articles appearing in the state-run media in the first days and weeks of the ban posited that Falun Gong must be defeated because its “theistic” philosophy was at odds with the Marxist–Leninism paradigm and with the secular values of materialism.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Speculation_on_rationale
The Chinese Communist Party and Falun Gong have a massive worldwide fight going on. Although suppressed in China, Falun Gong has tons of money from its adherents in the rest of the world. You may be exposed to it most if you have the “Shen Yun” performances coming to your community. That is a production of the Falun Gong, and part of it is a message for “traditional” Chinese beliefs (at least according to Falun Gong) and against the Communists.
https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/
Ant, by the same token, how does the practice of secular humanism inform or influence NBC’s coverage?
The swastika has been a traditional Buddhist symbol for millennia. Long before the Nazi’s appeared on the scene.
Epoch Times does publish some quite useful articles, whereas NBC news is nearly worthless
If you want to stop this kind of journalism, you give the names of the reporters in that first sentence and keep naming them by whoever asked which question.
You should expose them and shame them by name.
Yes, but this movement started in the early 90’s, per Wikipedia.
Why would a modern organization drudge up such a world-wide symbol of repression? If they’re trying to reclaim it, they’re swimming against a fierce tide.
It isn't a world wide symbol of oppression, unless it is shown in the context of the NAZI Party, or those remaining idiots who espouse that kind of idea. In Asia the shape is associated with ancient religious symbols.
See the Wikipedia article on the topic for a basic overview.
There is no reason for millions, or maybe even billions of people in Asia to give up a symbol of religious significance just because some evil tyrants stole it from them and used it.
I live in Canberra. There is a US Embassy, there is a Chinese Red Army Embassy. There are lots of national Embassies, High Commissions, Consulates, foreign language schools and international friendship societies... but of all these only the Red Army Embassy has a continuing protest at its driveway. Sometimes the Tibetans join in. Sometimes it is one person, sometimes it is five, on weekends it is more. They know they are being video taped.
I have lived here 12 years now and first photographed the protesters in about 2009, and still it goes on.
I have been there and chatted to see what “the longest protest ever” has to say. OMG. The smuggled documents and photos of victims of organ harvesting and the forced labour camps/gulags... it is inhuman, it is as evil and vile. And its the same for Christians under the Red Army. Yet we walk into big box stores like Walmart and Lowes etc and buy MIC products by the millions.
+++++++
Falun is the word for their quasi-buddhist symbol, referencing balance and reincarnation and it appears to be a swastiker. Uh huh. When they talk about Tradition they are talking very old Chinese traditions. Kharma and caste; if you are a slave, serf or other untouchable and join in a war on behalf on the Emperor-God and prosperous priesthood caste, you will likely “return” in a higher caste. I think the Pharaohs and Sultans also maintained power for centuries using the reincarnation promise.
And I also think a leader who believes in reincarnation (and btw that babes who are cleanest in kharma terms will “return to the Godhead” when they are sacrificed)(which was still going on in Tantric Hinduism very late in the twentieth century) will be the one most likely to start a nuclear war to end all wars.
If Falun Gung is ever victorious in Red Army China... that’s 1400 million people we are talking about -1.4 billion at the moment. Just saying.
The Munich Putsch inner sanctum and rich industrialist types were well versed in ancient Aryans through the esoteric mumbo-jumbo hawked around the European nobility by Madame Blatavsky if I recall. I read a thick Christian text from the late 19th Century that attacked her movement and Darwinism as being the greatest threat to western civilisation and a sign of the endtimes.
The left-facing swastika was a Buddhist symbol long before the Nazis appropriated it and turned it the other way.
A swastika still marks Buddhist temples on maps you use in Asia.
Well, FWIW, Shen Yun has produced more beauty than the Chinese Communist Party. I’d go again.
I’ve never been able to go. My friends liked it.
Bump
“Why would a modern organization drudge up such a world-wide symbol of repression?”
You’re ignorant.
It a Buddhist symbol that predates Nazis by thousands of years.
It’s everywhere in Asia and has been for centuries.
The swastika means Dharma.
You can also find the swastika symbol on tombstones in So. Vietnam if the Communists haven’t destroyed them (the reds have leveled may SVN, esp. ARVN cemeteries over the past 40+ years. (The SVNese took care of cemeteries no matter who were buried in them. I saw one such cemetery in the Mekong Delta tended by a woman who had a small foods store in her house, which was right next to the cemetery, which had at least o ne communist grave from the 1920’s. She and her husband took care of it.
The husband were written up in a NY Times article in either last Oct. or early Nov. 1970 b Ralph Blumenthal, a leftist writer, the same week I was there interviewing the man’s wife.
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