With its reputation not reduced enough, now the outlet promotes despotic authoritarianism.
Having made itself into a journalistic punchline CNN continues to barrel forward with coverage ranging from embarrassing to the inept. Now it is approaching the level of outright insanity. For the past few weeks we have been witness to the outlet cheering on our national crisis while supporting the Chinese regime and praising its viral contagion efforts. Now it has gone to the next depth — outwardly promoting communist policies for the United States.
In a piece penned by James Griffiths, CNN puts up a treatise that seriously touts the methods and liberty-squashing techniques the Chi-Coms have instituted. It seems outlandish to suggest it — some may even opine I am engaging in hyperbole to say CNN is promoting communism — but it begins right there in the headline, and descends further into madness from there.
CNN, not even bothering to pretend anymore… pic.twitter.com/vmvPUVKEcw
— Brad Slager: aka Wuhan Solo (@MartiniShark) April 30, 2020
They waste little copy space to get there. After an introduction where a quote from a Lord in the British Parliament called the pandemic a crisis of communism, we get this pithy line from Griffiths: ”While it’s debatable how communist modern China actually is, Adonis is not alone in his complaint.’’
Debatable. Sure, I suppose you could write that line with a straight face, if your two sides of said debate involve, ‘’Is China heavily communist, or Really F-ing communist?’’ With that level of fealty for a statist regime established the best way to display the dictatorial dysfunction is to filet this column up, and pour over some of the choice cuts of government-issued red meat.
Many have continued to hammer phrases such as “China flu” or “Wuhan virus,” despite warnings that such terms could lead to increased hostility against Asians.
- And from where have those ‘’warnings’’ derived? The very Chinese leadership that allowed the virus to fester and spread from the Wuhan province. Oh, and from the US press outlets who are bidden to China via their corporate connections on the Mainland. (something I have recently detailed at Townhall.)
It’s safe to say that China’s brand has taken a hit due to the virus. / But for some, the Beijing model is not necessarily looking so bad.
- When you say ‘’some’’, do any of those exist outside college faculties or the US media?
China, despite being where the virus first emerged, has coped with the ensuing pandemic far better than many other countries, even though those countries had a longer warning time and greater chance to prepare.
- The only way this holds true is if you elect to swallow the information spoonfed from the same leadership that tried to squelch the outbreak for months, permitted it to spread globally, before informing other nations. We will get into how they ‘’coped’’ later.
The crisis has also highlighted the benefits of a strong government and centralized planning, while — despite Adonis’s claims to the contrary — exposing the limitations of private industry to respond quickly, particularly in the healthcare sector.
- In China you cannot separate the government and the private sector. The Chi-Coms control it all, so any private sector failings fall on the government. As for ‘’responding quickly’’, the Chinese government didn’t. They spent the early weeks trying to tamp down information from getting out about the virus, rather than addressing the viral outbreak itself.
Far from a strong government, Washington has found itself fighting with state officials, facing accusations of pilfering medical supplies and growing calls for greater state power.
- Clearly that pesky federalism found in a representative republic is a bother for the statists at CNN.
Certainly, China’s leaders, and their vast propaganda apparatus, have not been blind to the opportunity this presents. For weeks state media has been playing up the disorder around the world as it praises Beijing’s own handling of the crisis, shoring up power and support at home — but it has also taken aim at those already sympathetic to China who could be pulled further into the fold.
- Namely, the US media. That CNN recognizes Chinese messaging as propaganda yet continues to promote it is…astonishingly oblivious.
China has been playing up the importance of “multilateralism,” calling for the shoring up of global institutions and offering assistance to anyone that needs it. In particular, China has emerged as the strongest defendant of the World Health Organization (WHO) as it faces pressure from Washington.
- To suggest that Chinese support for an organization that has run interference for the Chi-Coms, excused its complicity, and praised it as a global leader in fighting the disease it caused is somehow surprising is abject naivete.
Writing last month, the European Union’s Minister for Foreign Affairs…said there is an ongoing “global battle of narratives,” in which “China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the US, it is a responsible and reliable partner.” This was through highlighting its assistance to other countries, such as by sending medical supplies and experts to aid with the coronavirus response.
- This ignores the numerous stories of Chinese medical products being unusable, of test kits delivered that were tainted, and even supplies once donated to China being sold back to the nations initially providing them. And here is a question that always grinds to a halt those claims of Chinese success in battling the virus: If they have managed to get this fully under control why have the Chi-Coms failed to share these wildly successful techniques with other nations?
Just as crises around fake news and online disinformation have made it easier for China to push its model of internet sovereignty — one that has been happily embraced by those governments already keen to censor online dissent — so too has the current pandemic provided an opportunity and an excuse to pursue the type of authoritarian power exercised by Beijing.
- Digest this for a moment. This is a major news organization suggesting that censorship is the way to go. That it cites ‘’fake news’’ as a rationale for this policy, something CNN is adept at providing, for broad censoring of the media is a self-created crisis of need. This is both sad, and hilarious to behold.
China could be perceived to be a strong argument that an empowered state is what is needed to respond to the pandemic. Regardless of the many valid criticisms of how Beijing initially handled the crisis, it appears to have been able to get its domestic epidemic under control and the economy back on track better than many other countries.
- That ‘’empowered state’’ saw the outbreak and responded by jailing doctors who dared speak out about the virus. Journalists who reported on the crisis were evicted from the Wuhan area and state-controlled media were inserted. Cities were locked down and even residents were welded shut in their homes. CNN looks at these assaults on human rights and declares this ”is what is needed.” This should never be forgotten.
When this new strain of a virus erupted China did everything it could to hide the reality. It clamped down on domestic information, tried sealing the very town where it was centered, but permitted full international air travel at the same time. The first response by the Chinese leadership was about image control, not viral containment. It was nearly two months before they acknowledged it and shared details with the world. Now those communists who lied about it are looked at as the paragon of truth by CNN.
That is how China responded, and it resulted in a worldwide pandemic. How anyone can look at this as a success worth emulating calls into question the motivations of that outlet. Just look at how CNN closes out this fiasco of communist PR.
It tells us, ‘’Brand China may be suffering as a result of the pandemic, but it is not the only one. Beijing also appears to have a greater appreciation than most of its rivals of the potential opportunities presented by the current crisis to emerge stronger and more influential than ever before.’’
Well, with the US media bought off and delivering its propaganda, those opportunities are certainly getting its share of airtime.