On April 29, CBC published an article devoted to this special edition that is deliberately misleading and intentionally excludes crucial information we provided to CBC prior to the publication of its article. The sole purpose seems to be to discredit The Epoch Times and our reporting on the coronavirus.
A copy of our email to the CBC reporter prior to publication is included at the end of this article.
I am heartened to see that most of the comments on the CBC article are critical of it. At the end of this article we include some of the comments.
The headline CBC gave the article seems to speak for all Canadians, saying “‘Racist and inflammatory’: Canadians upset by Epoch Times claim China behind virus, made it as a bioweapon.”
How does CBC know how the majority of Canadians feel about our coverage?
The article quotes an individual who feels that our coverage of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP’s) responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic is “racist and inflammatory.” Is that one individual’s opinion the source of a headline speaking for all Canadians?
The headline focuses on a small part of our eight-page special edition, a commentary article that discusses the history of top CCP officials talking about developing bioweapons. But this opinion article did not state that the Wuhan lab was developing bioweapons, contrary to the claim in the headline.
CBC purposefully omitted that our media organization was founded by Chinese immigrants, which was stated in the email to the reporter. We are the media telling people that this pandemic is not the fault of the Chinese people, but is the fault of the Communist Party. The Chinese people have been victimized by the CCP’s handling of this pandemic. By discussing the CCP’s role, we are truly standing up for the Chinese people.
Making the truth about the CCP’s role clear will also help eliminate racial tension.
CCP propaganda is the origin of the identification of the CCP and China, and the CCP works continuously to emphasize this, not only in its own state-controlled media, but in media around the world.
By merging the two very different entities together to stir up the idea that when someone is talking about the CCP, it’s the same as talking about China, this conflation is used to evoke the Chinese people’s patriotism and elicit Westerners’ concerns over racism, leading people from both groups to defend the CCP. In this way, people’s worthy motives are used to enmesh them in the CCP’s ill behaviour. If people read our paper, they will understand these issues better.
There is no balance in the CBC article. The reporter purposefully chose a few voices that have one-sided opinions and used them to attempt to discredit us. The article includes no comments from any individuals who might disagree with CBC’s criticism.
In fact, we received a great deal of feedback via phone or email regarding this special edition and are aware that many Canadians are highly appreciative of our work. Sometimes people call our office and are very critical, but when we talk to them we often find that they didn’t take time to read our content, but just glanced at the cover and jumped to a conclusion. When we explain our content and ask them to read it, they often change their attitude and opinion.
The CBC article also tries to discredit our reporting on China. In fact, China is the most difficult subject for media to cover due to the Beijing regime’s lack of transparency. However, we have more connections inside China than others and have reported vital information ahead of many other media.
We began to report on the Wuhan virus on Dec. 31 and reported on the coverup of the real numbers in early February. If more people had been reading The Epoch Times, our country could have been prepared. In our opinion, there is not enough truthful reporting about China and the nature of its ruling communist regime.
The CBC article also uses the persecution against Falun Gong in China to unfairly frame us as an agenda-driven media and then goes on to misrepresent that persecution.
It is grossly irresponsible reporting to say “Its followers say the Chinese government persecutes them and oppresses their religious rights,” as though the evidence for the persecution of Falun Gong depends only on what its adherents say. From the most basic research, CBC should know, for example, that both the American Congress and European Parliament have passed resolutions urging the CCP to stop the persecution campaign and have raised concerns about or explicitly condemned the forced organ harvesting that has targeted Falun Gong practitioners.
Regarding the persecution, one CBC source says there could be “certain exaggerations,” blatantly downplaying a severe persecution campaign that has resulted in untold suffering and death.
The article also has simple factual errors. For instance, the first sentence describes us as “a free newspaper typically found in street boxes.” The Epoch Times in Canada stopped distribution through street boxes last July and is only available via paid subscriptions and home delivery.
This article asserts that the Shen Yun Performing Arts company is part of Epoch Media Group. It is not.
We understand that different readers may have different opinions, and that readers have the right to choose whatever media they want to read. But having multiple voices gives people greater choice, and makes for a healthier society. This CBC report is meant to shut down our voice. Instead of debating on specifics and pointing out concrete reporting errors, it quotes a few critical voices in an attempt to discredit us.
We have received numerous awards for our reporting, including from the Society of Professional Journalists and the New York Press Association.
We also received a national award for our SARS coverage in Canada, after being among the first media to break the SARS story in 2003, three weeks before the Chinese regime admitted there was an epidemic.
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The Special Edition can be downloaded here.Email Sent to CBC Reporter Prior to Publication
The email includes a message to the CBC reporter, information worth noting and information about the Special Edition.Hi Katie,
Thank you for the inquiry.
2) We started to report on the worrisome situation of the virus on Dec. 31, 2019. In early February we reported that the real number of deaths and infections inside China was at least 10 to 20 times the Chinese government’s official numbers, way ahead of other media. If more people had read our reports, the world would have been better prepared. Timely information can save lives.
3) The Epoch Times has recently been “sampling” copies of a special edition on Beijing’s coverup that led to a global pandemic in select areas because we consider that information to be important to Canadians. We regard this sampling as an act of good citizenship.
Sampling refers to distributing copies of a newspaper to specific neighbourhoods. This is a standard way of raising brand awareness and recruiting new subscribers.
4) Some people may have erroneously conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with criticism of the Chinese people. The Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Chinese people or China. Understanding the difference is vital and will eliminate racial tension, as people come to understand that the criticism of the handling of the virus is of the CCP, not the Chinese people.
The current confrontation is between the CCP and the people of the world, both in and outside of China. Both the Chinese people and Canadians are victims of the CCP’s coverup.
We are not alone in pointing out the distinction between the CCP and China. Consider these recent headlines: Washington Post: “Don’t blame ‘China’ for the coronavirus — blame the Chinese Communist Party”; Globe and Mail: “The coronavirus exposes the lie at the heart of Communist China”; National Post: “Beijing’s communist regime is the biggest ‘China virus’ threatening our survival.”
5) Regarding the Wuhan lab, it is a small part of our reporting on the coronavirus. China silenced early whistleblowers, destroyed samples, and falsified data. We simply asked questions like many others. In the past, CCP top military officials openly talked about the development of bioweapons. Whether the virus is engineered or not, has neither been proven nor disproven at this point.
In our documentary we only raise questions, it never ruled out a natural origin and it does not assert that the virus was engineered. The documentary is fastidious in not giving any definitive conclusions regarding the origin. It presents the facts that were known and the opinions of experts.
6) While most newspapers have been experiencing a decline in circulation, The Epoch Times has been growing in recent years, against the trend.
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Worth noting:
The Epoch Times was among the first to report on the SARS outbreak in 2003, three weeks before the Chinese regime publicly admitted there was an outbreak. Our early coverage of the SARS outbreak earned our Chinese edition a national award from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.
According to a recent study by the University of Southampton, if “non-pharmaceutical interventions—such as early detection, isolation of cases, travel restrictions and cordon sanitaire ... could have been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier, cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent and 95 percent, respectively—significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.”
Dr. Shawn Whatley, past president of the Ontario Medical Association, said “I first learned about the damage by the new, aggressive Wuhan virus from The Epoch Times. Kudos to ET for doing what we pay the departments of health billions of dollars to do.”
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Our Special Edition features some of our coverage of the virus that has engulfed the globe, causing a serious threat to people’s health and way of life. There have been multiple reports and studies, and even remarks by governments, noting that had the Chinese communist regime been forthright about the outbreak and the risks sooner, many lives could have been saved and the damage to economies would have been minimal.
The Special Edition delves into topics such as how the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup led to a pandemic, how the regime persecuted medical professionals in China who tried to get information out about the outbreak, how it is still hiding the true scale of the pandemic and the number of deaths in China, and how it has launched a global disinformation campaign to lay the blame for the pandemic elsewhere.
Regards,
Cindy Gu
Publisher, The Epoch Times Canada
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Selection of Readers’ Comments on CBC’s Article
- Brad Mercier
- 17 minutes ago
- John Burnaby
- 22 minutes ago
- Mark Williamson
- 23 minutes ago
- Sandra Rivera
- 1 hour ago
- 4 minutes ago
- Sandra Rivera
- 14 minutes ago
- Fred Thiolla
- 24 minutes ago
- Elias Eliot
- 1 hour ago
- Mike Smith
- 48 minutes ago
- Charels Latner
- 28 minutes ago
And yes, thank-you CBC for enlightening Canadians about this great publication.
Odd, but still,
- Greg Dear
- 1 hour ago
Is Criticism of the Iranian government is racism against Iranian people?
- Mike Smith
- 18 minutes ago
- Brian Robertson
- 34 minutes ago
And the charge of being inflammatory?
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