The BFD | ‘A Media Pathogen’

I came across this very useful phrase yesterday: “a media pathogen” – in an article describing the virus of state-sponsored untruths deliberately spread by willing, or naive, accomplices in the news industry.

The article discussed the findings of a “nine-month Associated Press investigation of state-sponsored disinformation conducted in collaboration with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab” which found “how a rumour that the US created the virus that causes COVID-19 was weaponised by the Chinese government, spreading from the dark corners of the internet to millions across the globe.” Dear, oh dear. That doesn’t sound good.

In describing how the Chinese communist leadership fabricated and facilitated their lie the article states:

“China went on the offensive. On February 22 [2020], People’s Daily ran a report highlighting speculation that the US military brought the virus to China, pushing the story globally through inserts in newspapers such as the Helsinki Times in Finland and the New Zealand Herald.”

Well, that’s interesting, don’t you think? I thought, silly me, the NZ Herald ended their relationship with the ‘People’s Daily’ propaganda outfit following the fallout from publishing an entirely fabricated op-ed supposedly written by Dame Jenny Shipley, a lie the NZ Herald repeated (and later retracted), which occurred over a year before:

Clearly, at the NZ Herald, they are slow learners. Or are they? While the editor of the ‘Helsinki Times’ waxed lyrical in mea-culpa mitigation of the misinformation:

“We believe that the Western media coverage is at times extremely one-sided and biased,” said Alexis Kouros, the editor of the Helsinki Times. “Even though People’s Daily is state-owned, like the BBC, we believe it is beneficial for the global audience to have both sides of stories.”

All of which sounds like the desperate clatter of obfuscation, but fair enough. So what about the NZ Herald? What’s their explanation for carrying the manure-spreading, purely fictional, content? (Hint: it won’t surprise you)