CNN Pushes Propaganda From Chinese Military About How Much Better China is Handling the Virus Than the US

CNN has published a report from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) about how much better the Chinese military is handling the coronavirus pandemic than the Americans are. 

The network sourced a report from China’s English PLA website in their article that claimed “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.”

Derek Hunter

✔@derekahunter

Wow, @CNN is now directly running Chinese propaganda. @brianstelter, any comment on this from a "journalistic" point of view, or no? https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-04-13-20/h_56789fcd84e51ac3bc5f96a325cfdb72 …

35

12:28 AM - Apr 14, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

23 people are talking about this

The Daily Caller noted that major portions of CNN’s uncritical report are nearly identical to the propaganda in the PLA press release.

“The report said that the Chinese carrier was carrying out this operation while four US Navy aircraft carriers — the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Nimitz — have reported cases of coronavirus, crimping their operations,” CNN wrote, mirroring the PLA release.

CNN even quoted the PLA discussing how great of a job they are doing.

“‘Through the voyage, the Liaoning showed that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has done a great job in the epidemic prevention and control work and COVID-19 epidemic has not had an impact on its deployment and operations,’” the story says, citing Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association,” CNN wrote. “‘It showed that the PLA can dispatch troops stationed anywhere at any time, with the troops always maintaining vigorous combat capabilities. The Chinese people can always count on them,’ Xu is quoted as saying.”

When contacted for comment by the Daily Caller, CNN dismissed their concerns about the network peddling Chinese propaganda, saying that the post on the site is simply a “single update from our international site’s 24-7 Live Story.”

Alarmingly, the regurgitated propaganda also got top billing on Facebook’s news tab.