Upon reading it I thought of my grandfather, a paratrooper in the Second World War, parachuting out of planes behind enemy lines to fight for the freedoms we cherish. I wondered how the brave men and women of his generation would look at the CBC’s shabby attempt to smear another news outlet that reports on the true nature of the tyrannical regime in Beijing.
It was a David and Goliath moment: the state broadcaster, with its $1.2 billion in funding, versus a small team of journalists and contributors specialized in exposing communism.
The CBC article conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party with criticism of the Chinese people, and labelled our reporting “racist and inflammatory.” Two Canadians quoted in the article appeared to have made a snap judgment about the contents of the special report without having carefully read it. The CBC failed to provide any evidence from the special report to back up these serious and damaging allegations.
Credibility is any news outlet’s greatest asset. We have been working hard to build trust with our readers by delivering quality information for more than 15 years. So why would the CBC label The Epoch Times racist, xenophobic, and conspiracy theorists for accurately pointing to the Chinese Communist Party’s mishandling of the pandemic?
We’ve seen some governments, like those in Italy and Iran, relying heavily on the advice coming out of China, which led to a delayed response in restricting travel. In contrast, countries that didn’t trust the information coming from Beijing, like Taiwan, reacted much more cautiously, screening travellers and restricting travel from Wuhan. As a result, Taiwan has done a superior job of managing the virus.
Many media outlets are quoting “official” case numbers from China as if they are fact, when in reality these media are helping the regime cover up the true situation by not seeking independent verification.
The narratives coming out of China serve one overarching purpose: to protect the Party. Voices questioning and exposing these narratives have been labelled as spreading misinformation. Meanwhile, the regime has launched a global disinformation campaign to lay the blame for the pandemic elsewhere. It’s a chaotic situation that needs calm and rigorous analysis to decipher.
How did a CBC report—whose headline has been changed four times, as well as several other corrections made due to lack of fact-checking—make it past the news director and legal team to air on CBC’s flagship evening broadcast The National? It’s unfortunate that the network is guilty of the shoddy journalism it falsely accuses The Epoch Times of practicing.
The Epoch Times has a long track record of reporting important stories about China, such as having been one of the first to report in Mandarin on the SARS outbreak in 2003, and for exposing the crime of live organ harvesting of Chinese prisoners of conscience.
The Epoch Times began reporting on the viral outbreak in Wuhan in late December, before most media outlets. Dr. Shawn Whatley, past president of the Ontario Medical Association, said: “I first learned about 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.”
Each generation faces unique challenges. Our brave forefathers said no to tyranny and oppression. How would they feel about the country’s publicly funded media acting like a propaganda arm of the CCP?
Despite our reporters in China being jailed and tortured in the early days, and despite being subjected to constant interference by Beijing over the years, The Epoch Times has managed to survive. All kinds of methods have been used to stop us from exposing the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party, and it’s especially sad to see our national broadcaster fall into the regime’s misinformation trap.
Hopefully more Canadians will come to realize the value of fearless, independent reporting on a totalitarian regime that, as it continues repressing its own citizens while growing its influence overseas, at heart cares not one whit about human rights or human life.
