In a one-two punch, FaceBook has sharply curtailed the ability of a pro-Trump, anti-Communist media outfit to promote its services -- following attacks by corporate media, which not only oppose the President but also tend to find fault with Trump's targeting of Communist China's trade practices.
Red China has lately backed away from agreed-upon trade positions as it hopes a softer-line Democrat will capture the White House next year, President Trump suspects. That Communist agenda is furthered by FaceBook's double-barreled clampdown on The Epoch Times, which though founded by Chinese dissidents and concerned Chinese Americans, has gone mainstream, much to the consternation of media outfits run by corporations that are eager to capitalize on the Communist-controlled Chinese market.
"FaceBook recently cut off our ability to advertise our products, demonstrating how unstable it is for an independent media company to rely on big tech platforms," The Times said in a statement. The paper added, "The top five digital advertising companies control nearly 75 percent of all digital revenue. This makes it very hard for individual websites to thrive based just on advertising." FaceBook curbed the paper's promotions in July and again in the following weeks, the paper reported.
The Epoch Times format is somewhat like that of the Guardian. Both have U.S. editions and ideological orientations other than standard-brand "corporate liberal." The Guardian tilts left, the Epoch Times right.
Some of the malice coming from NBC and other media masks a calculated racism, whereby the corporate media are counting on anti-Chinese stereotypes to help portray their rival as "only Chinese" and hence ignorable.
Asian-Americans have long struggled with popular prejudices about their mother country's culture and ethnicity, even though Chinese Americans are known for their American patriotism.
The corporate media, in league with cunning Communist manipulators and FaceBook, take full advantage of these unfortunate stereotypes.
The fact that Epoch Times got off the ground with the backing of a religious or spiritual group represents nothing new in America. At one time, for example, Christian Science was considered an oddball religion, but today The Christian Science Monitor is an accepted general interest international newspaper.
Yet the phrase Christian Science, whatever ideology or theology that represents, is clearly an English language phrase, whereas Falun Gong surely is not. From the viewpoint of those anxious to discredit and marginalize The Epoch Times, the foreign phrase tends to make all-too-many English speakers unthinkingly dismissive.
FaceBook's muzzle echoes Communist-inspired actions against the group in the United States. For example, in January 2012 , the Buddhist-like spiritual group complained that it was again barred from New York’s Chinese New Year parade because organizers buckled under pressure from Chinese officials.
The parade in Manhattan’s Chinatown is an annual spectacle of floats, musicians, magicians, acrobats and giant dragons dancing through neighborhood streets for hours. The Falun Gong -- also called Falun Dafa -- had been prohibited from marching since 2008. Parade organizers blamed fights among Falun Gong other ethnic Chinese. The group tends to be peaceable and critics saw the hand of the Chinese consulate in stirring up provocations so as to justify the ban.
“We’ve participated in the parade for years, till 2008,” said Lucy Zhou, who was one of thousands of U.S. followers of Falun Gong, a movement that the Chinese government has vilified as an evil cult.
Falun Gong was revived in the 1990s and attracted millions of followers. It involves traditional Chinese calisthenics and philosophy drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the often-unorthodox teachings of founder Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk now in hiding.
China welcomed the group at first, but when adherents there grew to more than 70 million, Communist officials cracked down on what had essentially become an opposition movement, according to Levi Browde, a New York-based spokesman for the group.
The group's popularity was seen as a rival and threat to single-party rule by the power elite, the members of the Communist Party, according to informed observers.
Denial of the parade permits conflicts with basic American values of freedom of religion, speech and assembly, though it conforms closely to Communist Party theory.
In July 2011, a governors' conference barred an American anti-Communist journalist for fear of offending Chinese officials and business people, whom U.S. localities were wooing in hopes of drawing some benefits of trade with Red China to their locales. Meanwhile, members of Communist-controlled media were welcome at the convention, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The National Governors Association denied press credentials to William Jasper, senior editor of The New American magazine, published by the anti-Communist John Birch Society. The group is named for a U.S. missionary killed in China by Communist forces after World War II and is considered by the society to be the first casualty of the Cold War.
The NGA told Jasper in an email that he was denied credentials partly because they are only for reporters "engaged in the dissemination of objective news stories."
Jasper countered that credentials were given to reporters from Communist-controlled media in China. "I'm sure their coverage will be unbiased," he said sarcastically.
Jodi Omear, spokeswoman for the NGA said credentials also are only for legitimate media that reach a general audience. She confirmed that many Chinese media were given credentials, but said the NGA does not release lists of which organizations receive them.
Jasper suspects he was denied credentials because the NGA may be upset about stories he wrote criticizing closer ties between individual U.S. states and Communist China. He also pointed to efforts by some in the John Birch Society urging governors to boycott the current meetings with Chinese leaders.
"The NGA just wants to have shills" among reporters who will "rip and read what's handed to them," Jasper said.
Jasper said governors "are so head over heals about seeking Beijing dollars and approval of the Chinese that they are ready and willing to abandon the Constitution, the First Amendment, human rights and everything else on the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs."
He wrote in a recent magazine article that the NGA has "a scripted chorus line, with U.S. governors and Chinese provincial officials linking arms in smiley faced, harmonious poses," that he said are a "cover for the continued transfer of the U.S. industrial and economic base to China."
**************
In response to NBC's stories "exposing" The Epoch Times, its U.S. publisher, Stephen Gregory, said,
Red China has lately backed away from agreed-upon trade positions as it hopes a softer-line Democrat will capture the White House next year, President Trump suspects. That Communist agenda is furthered by FaceBook's double-barreled clampdown on The Epoch Times, which though founded by Chinese dissidents and concerned Chinese Americans, has gone mainstream, much to the consternation of media outfits run by corporations that are eager to capitalize on the Communist-controlled Chinese market.
"FaceBook recently cut off our ability to advertise our products, demonstrating how unstable it is for an independent media company to rely on big tech platforms," The Times said in a statement. The paper added, "The top five digital advertising companies control nearly 75 percent of all digital revenue. This makes it very hard for individual websites to thrive based just on advertising." FaceBook curbed the paper's promotions in July and again in the following weeks, the paper reported.
The Epoch Times format is somewhat like that of the Guardian. Both have U.S. editions and ideological orientations other than standard-brand "corporate liberal." The Guardian tilts left, the Epoch Times right.
Some of the malice coming from NBC and other media masks a calculated racism, whereby the corporate media are counting on anti-Chinese stereotypes to help portray their rival as "only Chinese" and hence ignorable.
Asian-Americans have long struggled with popular prejudices about their mother country's culture and ethnicity, even though Chinese Americans are known for their American patriotism.
The corporate media, in league with cunning Communist manipulators and FaceBook, take full advantage of these unfortunate stereotypes.
The fact that Epoch Times got off the ground with the backing of a religious or spiritual group represents nothing new in America. At one time, for example, Christian Science was considered an oddball religion, but today The Christian Science Monitor is an accepted general interest international newspaper.
Yet the phrase Christian Science, whatever ideology or theology that represents, is clearly an English language phrase, whereas Falun Gong surely is not. From the viewpoint of those anxious to discredit and marginalize The Epoch Times, the foreign phrase tends to make all-too-many English speakers unthinkingly dismissive.
FaceBook's muzzle echoes Communist-inspired actions against the group in the United States. For example, in January 2012 , the Buddhist-like spiritual group complained that it was again barred from New York’s Chinese New Year parade because organizers buckled under pressure from Chinese officials.
The parade in Manhattan’s Chinatown is an annual spectacle of floats, musicians, magicians, acrobats and giant dragons dancing through neighborhood streets for hours. The Falun Gong -- also called Falun Dafa -- had been prohibited from marching since 2008. Parade organizers blamed fights among Falun Gong other ethnic Chinese. The group tends to be peaceable and critics saw the hand of the Chinese consulate in stirring up provocations so as to justify the ban.
“We’ve participated in the parade for years, till 2008,” said Lucy Zhou, who was one of thousands of U.S. followers of Falun Gong, a movement that the Chinese government has vilified as an evil cult.
Falun Gong was revived in the 1990s and attracted millions of followers. It involves traditional Chinese calisthenics and philosophy drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the often-unorthodox teachings of founder Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk now in hiding.
China welcomed the group at first, but when adherents there grew to more than 70 million, Communist officials cracked down on what had essentially become an opposition movement, according to Levi Browde, a New York-based spokesman for the group.
The group's popularity was seen as a rival and threat to single-party rule by the power elite, the members of the Communist Party, according to informed observers.
Denial of the parade permits conflicts with basic American values of freedom of religion, speech and assembly, though it conforms closely to Communist Party theory.
In July 2011, a governors' conference barred an American anti-Communist journalist for fear of offending Chinese officials and business people, whom U.S. localities were wooing in hopes of drawing some benefits of trade with Red China to their locales. Meanwhile, members of Communist-controlled media were welcome at the convention, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The National Governors Association denied press credentials to William Jasper, senior editor of The New American magazine, published by the anti-Communist John Birch Society. The group is named for a U.S. missionary killed in China by Communist forces after World War II and is considered by the society to be the first casualty of the Cold War.
The NGA told Jasper in an email that he was denied credentials partly because they are only for reporters "engaged in the dissemination of objective news stories."
Jasper countered that credentials were given to reporters from Communist-controlled media in China. "I'm sure their coverage will be unbiased," he said sarcastically.
Jodi Omear, spokeswoman for the NGA said credentials also are only for legitimate media that reach a general audience. She confirmed that many Chinese media were given credentials, but said the NGA does not release lists of which organizations receive them.
Jasper suspects he was denied credentials because the NGA may be upset about stories he wrote criticizing closer ties between individual U.S. states and Communist China. He also pointed to efforts by some in the John Birch Society urging governors to boycott the current meetings with Chinese leaders.
"The NGA just wants to have shills" among reporters who will "rip and read what's handed to them," Jasper said.
Jasper said governors "are so head over heals about seeking Beijing dollars and approval of the Chinese that they are ready and willing to abandon the Constitution, the First Amendment, human rights and everything else on the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs."
He wrote in a recent magazine article that the NGA has "a scripted chorus line, with U.S. governors and Chinese provincial officials linking arms in smiley faced, harmonious poses," that he said are a "cover for the continued transfer of the U.S. industrial and economic base to China."
**************
In response to NBC's stories "exposing" The Epoch Times, its U.S. publisher, Stephen Gregory, said,
Epoch Times statement
https://www.theepochtimes.com/epoch-times-statement-in-response-to-nbc-facebook-stories_3053492.html
We were surprised to learn from media reports that FaceBook has blocked The Epoch Times’ ability to advertise for print subscriptions. This appears to be a response to NBC News’ reporting on us.
Despite a vast “dark money” political conspiracy alleged in NBC News reporting, the reality is much simpler.
The Epoch Times has been running a very popular digital marketing campaign for our print-newspaper subscriptions. In the video advertisements, we discuss The Epoch Times’ editorial and feature content and encourage people to subscribe to our print newspaper.
FaceBook has specific rules for advertising that require everyone—including publishers like The Epoch Times—to label content as political advertising if it touches on social issues or politics, something some news content naturally does. Many other media run advertising campaigns for their content and products in the same category on FaceBook.
For example, [compare] FaceBook advertisements by The New York Times in that category.
And [compare] FaceBook advertisements by CNN in that category.
FaceBook blocked our ability in July to advertise on our main Epoch Times page, and didn’t provide us with a reason despite multiple requests for clarification. We have no reason to believe this is due to the content of the ads, as they were all approved by FaceBook.
Since then, The Epoch Times has published its advertising on a number of other, new FaceBook pages. Without exception, these ads are overtly Epoch Times advertisements for our subscriptions. And there is no secret there, since it’s all public.
Just as with our ads on our own FaceBook page, every single advertisement went through FaceBook’s review process and was approved and placed in the appropriate category before running.
NBC’s representation of our print-subscription advertisements is blatantly incorrect. None of our advertising was done to “obfuscate” the connection to The Epoch Times; all the advertising was clearly for Epoch Times print subscriptions.
Further, NBC News and MSNBC content about us has been riddled with inaccuracies, blatant errors, and misrepresentations. We refer you to our previous statement: [To read this and other materials, please use the link provided above.]
For example, NBC News dismissed but doesn’t provide a single point of factual rebuttal to our extensive coverage of the actions by Obama-era officials to target the Trump campaign in 2016. The reality is that The Epoch Times has become a recognized leader in its coverage of this topic. The tireless reporting by our team of reporters based on actual evidence—including court documents, congressional testimony, and interviews—has received wide acclaim from readers across the country and validation from other media outlets, including The New York Times, which has cited our coverage.
The Epoch Times is an independently owned media and not owned or operated by Falun Gong, as we clarified in our statement to NBC News.
The Epoch Times was originally founded by Chinese Americans who had fled communism. They believed in truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, the principles of Falun Gong. This is a fact that we have never shied away from. And it is exactly this commitment to truth that can be seen in our reporting.
Our reporters in China faced severe retribution for their work. Ten of our staff members were arrested and given extensive prison terms for their commitment to independent media.
What has come of free speech and freedom of the press if only media outlets that align with NBC’s views are allowed to advertise on FaceBook? People across America are hungry for an independent and honest media, which is why The Epoch Times is now America’s fastest-growing newspaper.
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