For years, the Chinese Communist Party has tried to manipulate the American public by paying media outlets to publish their positions. These propaganda pieces are usually presented as editorial opinion. Sometimes, they’re even published as normal news coverage. Some fun examples in just the last year alone include, “We Should Let China Spy on Us” by Bloomberg News and The Washington Post, “World Feared China Over Coronavirus. Now the Tables Are Turned” by The New York Times and “Trump’s malicious use of ‘Chinese virus’” by CNN. To be fair, several media outlets criticized President Trump’s ban on Chinese travel and his use of “Chinese virus” instead of Covid-19.
Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In December of 2019, The Washington Free Beacon reported, “China routinely broke federal law by not disclosing how much it spent to publish regime propaganda in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers, an expert review of foreign agent registration filings concluded.” The report explained that “China Daily, an official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, has published hundreds of propaganda articles designed to look like ordinary news stories in some of America’s most influential newspapers.” This has happened for decades and federal disclosure requirements continue to be ignored.
Mainstream media outlets have taken money from the Chinese government to publish propaganda with the intent of swaying public opinion and changing US policy. These outlets are acting as foreign agents, but they haven’t registered as foreign agents. Will they be prosecuted for it? If they are prosecuted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), it would be devastating. Without Chinese bribes and facing a serious trust issue that would damage subscriptions and ratings, the mainstream media wouldn’t survive.