The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machine has a new ally — CNN’s international editorial team.
CNN was caught publishing, almost word-for-word, a press release praising the Chinese People’s Liberation Army while criticizing the U.S. Navy.
The CNN report claimed the Chinese PLA “has done a much better job controlling coronavirus than the US Navy” and cites a Chinese propaganda source as evidence.
The article’s headline originally read: “China’s PLA Navy is controlling coronavirus and aircraft carrier’s deployment proves it, report says.”
And the opening paragraph said, “A Chinese naval flotilla headed into the Pacific over the weekend, evidence that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has done a much better job controlling coronavirus than the US Navy, according to a story posted on the PLA’s English-language website.”
In the face of online criticism, CNN quietly edited the article. When pressed for an explanation by The Daily Caller, a spokesman for the network claimed the article was simply a “single update from our international site’s 24-7 Live Story” and said the article “identifies the Global Times as ‘a state-run tabloid.’ That transparency is key as a global news source serving a global audience.”
According to The Washington Examiner, however, those were edits added later, after online criticism forced CNN to identify their source as CCP propaganda outlet.
The CNN spokesman’s statement “contrasts sharply with the fact that CNN has made significant edits to its report following online criticism — almost as if someone realized just how bad it looks for a supposedly serious and free news organization to repeat Chinese Communist propaganda nearly verbatim.”
The report comes at a time of increased global scrutiny on Chinese misinformation efforts regarding the origin and spread of the deadly Wuhan virus.
The Horn editorial team