News Corp takes on Chinese Embassy after being accused of ‘ignorance, prejudice and arrogance’ in COVID-19 reporting
Sydney’s Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China has written to News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph, accusing it of “ignorance, prejudice and arrogance” in its reporting of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The Daily Telegraph’s editor at Large, Matthew Benns, posited the communication could be part of a “global propaganda drive” by China in the face of criticism over its handling of the disease.
In response to the accusations put forward by the Embassy, on Saturday The Daily Telegraph published a take-down from Tim Blair, which covers everything from alleged organ harvesting, jailing of journalists, civilian executions, and cover-ups.
“The Daily Telegraph this week received a letter from the Australian Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, who took gentle issue with our excellent coverage of the coronavirus crisis,” Blair wrote, before publishing extracts from the letter, and tearing them to shreds.
(Click to enlarge)
According to Blair, the letter said: “Recently, The Daily Telegraph has published a number of reports and opinions about China’s response to COVID-19 that are full of ignorance, prejudice and arrogance”.
In response, Blair said on page six of Saturday’s paper: “If a state-owned newspaper in China received this kind of complaint, subsequent days would involve journalists waking up in prison with their organs harvested.”
The Consulate General also put forward the argument that the origin of the virus is a scientific question, the answer to which is still undetermined, and noted the World Health Organisation (WHO) had named the disease COVID-19 – not, for example, the ‘China virus’.
In response to this, Blair came out swinging at the WHO.
“The World Health organisation also appointed Zimbabwean murderer Robert Mugabe as its Goodwill Ambassador, and declared on March 2 that the ‘stigma’ of the coronavirus ‘is more dangerous than the virus itself’. The World Health Organisation does a lot of stupid stuff.”
Blair has written in previous columns that the “blame” for COVID-19 lies firmly with Chinese authorities and the WHO.
“Personally, I blame the Chinese Communist government’s lies and the World Health Organisation’s corruption for the initial coronavirus spread. And some blame is reserved too for the Wuhan market vendor who sold that first batch of hot bat soup,” he wrote on 29 March.
The week prior, he wrote: “Anyone who believes anything from the Chinese government – about the coronavirus, climate change, last night’s football results or the colour of the sky – is an idiot,” seemingly throwing his support behind US President Donald Trump dubbing the disease the “China virus”.
The Embassy’s letter has subsequently asked: “What is the real motive behind your attempt to repeatedly link the virus to China and even stating that the novel coronavirus was ‘made in China’?”
“Our motive is accuracy,” Blair responded.
Blair: Taking on China
The letter continued: “Is your judgement based on the wellbeing of the people, or do you have an ideological prejudice?”
To which Blair said: “We will admit to an ideological prejudice against deadly tyranny. It’s a tragic failing on our part.”
The letter and response also covers border control, defective testing kits, WHO funding, whistleblowers, misinformation and executions.
The full back and forth can be read here.
“Anyone who believes anything from the Chinese government – about the coronavirus, climate change, last night’s football results or the colour of the sky – is an idiot,”
Hear hear.
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Take the statement above and replace “Chinese government” with “Trump & the US government”, and I think it reads just as well in the current climate.
The real question is, in terms of trust, is it:
a. trust in Chinese Government > US Government
b. trust in Chinese Government Sky News After Dark
*sorry, after 2 weeks of home schooling I can only think in terms of multiple choice answers.
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Equically any who believes everything from News Corp is equally an “intelligent” to those who believes Chinese government.
Hear hear!
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If only we could add an option C: Trust in News Corp publications!
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When a global disaster like this happens, only idiots are the one keen to believe this finger-pointing game.
It’s very classic that the government uses Murdoch controlled media to use China as an excuse to cover up (or shift public focus away from) their failure.
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A fascinating line of argument taken by the Daily Telegraph…. *sigh *
Chinese government: The origin of the virus is still undetermined, and the World Health Organization has named the novel coronavirus “COVID-19”.
Daily Telegraph response ( although I use the word loosely in this case ): The World Health Organisation also appointed Zimbabwean murderer Robert Mugabe as its Goodwill Ambassador and declared on March 2 that the “stigma” of the coronavirus “is more dangerous than the virus itself”.
The World Health Organisation does a lot of stupid stuff.
Insightful eh?
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Say what you like about the quality of News Corps journalism or lack thereof although this complaint is very rich coming from the embassy of a country that held back information of the spread of COVID-19 whilst at the same time systematically decimated our essential basic medical supplies and PPE to the point that our frontline doctors and nurses are purchasing makeshift PPE from Bunnings. A major positive that will come out of the other side of this pandemic is our ability as a society to identify and call out wolves in sheep’s clothing without fear of a standard lazy call of ‘racism’. It’s time for accountability.
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Who to believe?
The PRC or News Corp?
a) PRC
b) News Corp
c) Both the PRC and News Corp
d) None of the above
Hmmmm. d) anyone?
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Hhmmm,
Seems like Mumbrella didn’t want to publish Hhmmm’s comment on this occasion? That’s a shame – and representing the media control ths story actually references – ironic – not?
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Hi Hhmmm,
Not quite correct. This article references government control. We are not the government. We are a trade publication for the media, marketing and advertising industry.
Your comment offered up a take on China, not the industry, not News Corp’s take on it, and not on the article’s approach. You can read our comment guidelines here:
https://mumbrella.com.au/about/community-guidelines
No irony here, just plain old comment moderation.
Vivienne – Mumbrella