Tucker Carlson: Politico Printed Chinese Propaganda Smearing Hong Kong Protesters

During his Tuesday evening television program, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson explained why Politico’s “content partnership” with The South China Morning Post is “one of the reasons sucking up to China seems normal in Washington.”

Transcript as follows:

One of the most important stories of this era, one that’s rarely told, is the ongoing betrayal of American interests and ideals by our elites in favor of China. China is surpassing the United States in economic power and in global influence, and that didn’t happen by accident.

Our leadership class actively helped them do it, and they got rich in return. We’ve given you many examples of this on the show over the years. tonight, another.

Politico is a blog based outside Washington, D.C. Conventional people read it for a conventional view on politics. Politico is one of the reasons everyone on television sounds the same and is usually wrong. It’s also one of the reasons sucking up to China seems normal in Washington. A few years ago, Politico entered into a so-called content partnership with the South China Morning Post. That’s an English language newspaper based in Hong Kong that is widely understood to be a mouthpiece for the Communist Chinese government.

The New York Times once described the publication as “a newspaper on a mission to promote China’s soft power.” The South China Morning Post is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. That’s a company run by a Communist Party member. Like all Chinese companies, Alibaba is required by the country’s 2017 National Intelligence Law to “support and assist and cooperate with China’s government spy agencies.”

What sort of content has Politico‘s partnership produced? Well, last October, pro-democracy protests broke out in Hong Kong. Here’s The Los Angeles Times headline from that day: “Hong Kong protesters defy police, set up roadblocks.” The Washington Post used this headline: “Police blast mosque with water cannon as hundreds of thousands protest in Hong Kong.” Now here, by contrast, is how The South China Morning Post described it: “Rampaging mob stage an arson spree in Hong Kong.” The Morning Post story went on to describe how a group of criminals was marauding and looting and vandalizing and burning, as they conducted what the paper repeatedly described as “an illegal march.”

The piece never once hinted as to why the group might be protesting in the first place. There was no mention at all of political repression or a rollback of rights in Hong Kong. The protesters are presented as simply evil. That’s why they were doing it. The whole account bore no resemblance to a news story. It wasn’t journalism. It was state propaganda staged on behalf of the Chinese government. But here’s the best part: Politico ran the entire thing. Ran it without comment, like it was entirely real. Presumably, many of its readers in Washington thought it was real. And that, of course, was the point — lying with them from the Chinese perspective. Telling lies on behalf of a hostile foreign government. You’d think that would be considered over the line, if not illegal. But Politico was happy to do it.

What do Politico‘s employees think of this? We called a reporter, Ben Schreckinger, to find out. Schreckinger is an enthusiastic moralizer on behalf of establishment causes… How does Ben Schreckinger feel about working for a publication that makes money from Chinese state propaganda and political repression? Schreckinger refused to say.