Journalists Fawn Over North Korean Cheerleaders and Chief of Propaganda and Agitation

A man impersonating North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un gestures as he stands before North Korean cheerleaders attending the Unified Korean ice hockey game against Japan during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung on Feb. 14, 2018. YELIM LEE/AFP/Getty Images

Legacy news outlets released glowing pieces on North Korea’s presence at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Among the reports were The New York Times praising the North Korean cheerleaders, Reuters saying North Korea was “judged winner of diplomatic gold” at the games, and others that praised the sister of the North Korean dictator who heads the communist regime’s Department of Propaganda and Agitation.

The New York Times praised the propaganda chief, Kim Yo Jong, stating that she flashed a “sphinx-like smile and without ever speaking in public,” and brought a different message from President Donald Trump’s policy of sanctions, to instead deliver “messages of reconciliation.”

The articles showed the double-mindedness of many of the same news outlets, which have recently switched to positive reporting on the North Korean communist regime as it has backed down from confrontation with the United States. Only a few months ago the same outlets claimed that Trump’s strong stance on North Korea could provoke the regime into a nuclear war.

Readers were also quick to criticize the positive articles on North Korea’s propaganda teams, and other outlets noted the abusive system behind the smiling faces. Business Insider reported that “North Korean Olympians have a 24/7 surveillance team who will tackle them if they try to run away.” Vice News reported that after the North Korean cheer squad performed in South Korea in 2005, the communist regime sent 21 of them to prison camps for speaking about what they saw there.

Joe Concha, a reporter for The Hill, wrote on Twitter, “Just a reminder that Kim Jong-un’s sister literally heads the Department of Propaganda and Agitation. The Soviets called it Agitprop. The NY Times & other outlets are providing North Korea, with this fawning coverage, more than it could have ever dreamed of. We’ve lost our minds.”