The MSM Awakens to The Epoch Times

The MSM Awakens to The Epoch Times
Pedestrians walk past NBC's headquarters in New York City in a file photograph. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Marc Ruskin
8/28/2019
Updated:
8/28/2019
Commentary

It should come as no surprise to readers of the mainstream media and other news sources that The Epoch Times has come into the cross-hairs of NBC and MSNBC.

As with any subject of their ire, they fire a volley of distortions and mischaracterizations, in order to launch a campaign to delegitimize a perceived threat.

The Epoch Times is a competing news outlet that seeks to report objective facts–the truth–regardless of whether or not those facts reveal a reality that isn’t consistent with the politically correct message espoused by the legacy news outlets.

The frenzied nature of NBC’s assault is indicative of the success that The Epoch Times has achieved. Were this newspaper not accumulating readership and credibility at an astonishing pace, one of the principal branches of traditional media wouldn’t have initiated such a poorly orchestrated attempt to undermine the rising media outlet’s credibility—an attack initiated to disinform, to dissuade that new readership, and to reverse Epoch Times’ growing momentum.

While NBC has sought to portray The Epoch Times as essentially a geriatric—and thus non-millennial—pseudo-news organ, the paper’s staff consists of mostly young reporters and editors who share a youthful enthusiasm and camaraderie, as well as a unity of purpose: to report the facts honestly and revive traditional journalism.

Ironically, NBC criticizes The Epoch Times for, of all things, taking a critical position with regard to the government of the People’s Republic of China. Apparently, in a bizarre ideological twist, criticizing the Chinese communist regime is now a negative, a basis for condemning The Epoch Times’ journalism.

It is worth noting that when The Washington Times was founded, it too was attacked by the mainstream media, and was ridiculed and accused of being an organ of Sun Yung Moon and the “Moonies.” However, its editorial staff and journalists had complete editorial independence, just as do those of The Epoch Times.

Facebook’s knee-jerk reaction to the NBC pieces—curtailing access to advertising for subscribers that is allowed to competing newspapers—is symptomatic of corporate and social media efforts to circumvent the First Amendment limitations on suppression of inconvenient speech and opinions. As the First Amendment applies only to government action, left-leaning private entities are free to step in and attempt to suppress expression where the government is barred by the Bill of Rights.

The Epoch Times is not pro-Trump, it is pro-truth, and therefore it threatens those in the mainstream media.

Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, is a regular contributor and the author of “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI.” He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, is a regular contributor and the author of “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI.” He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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