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Falun Gong's publicity having no public confidence

2007-11-05 Author:By: Zuo Wen

A comprehensive view at Falun Gong media, including Minghui Net, Epoch Times, Kan Zhongguo (Secret China News) and Sound of Hope Radio, will make one feel that they have presented a great deal of false, invented or distorted information, which surely makes people belittle those media in return. Falun Gong's publicity shows no public confidence at all. Maybe they believe in German Nazi Party member Joseph Goebbels's notorious remark "A lie repeated one thousand times will become a truth."

An online search for "public confidence" reveals to me that the notion of public confidence is originated from "Accountability", referring to the responsibility for one's report, explanation, advocacy and behavior, and the liability for being questioned. Now public confidence, used universally in social public life, means the public authorities should show fairness, justice, efficiency, humanity, democracy and responsibility when facing with any problems in era shift, social contact and interest exchange. So public confidence should represent the true expression of public authorities, and thus fall into the category of political ethic. As a kind of intangible asset, the media have to cultivate their public confidence gradually. Media with public confidence usually enjoy high authority, credit and influence in the mind of the public. Media without public confidence will surely lifeless and be deserted by the public. Therefore, the core of public confidence is trust, especially the trust of the public. The media's public confidence is just based on the public's experience and evaluation of the media's accountability. It is an undisputed fact that the public is the god of the media. Without support from the public, any media, including the newspapers, radio, TV, Internet, cannot exist or develop. In present society all media are competing for more support from the public. In conclusion, media is the main vehicle for information spreading, and the public is the main force to evaluate the media and judge the media's public confidence.

Now let's have a close look at Falun Gong's media and evaluate how much public confidence they have showed. It might be more convincing to cite some reports from Falun Gong  media.

Example 1: It is about the fire disaster happened in Greece not long before. On August 27, 2007, the website of Epoch Times issued a report titled "Forest Fire Spreading in Greece and 50 died" (http:/ews.epochtimes.com.tw/7/8/27/63961g.htm). Mainly copied from BBC Chinese Net, this report also mentioned the effects and causes of this fire disaster: "The fire has spread to half of Greece, and almost threatened the Olympic relics. The cause for the fire is suspected to be intentional arson and 7 suspects have been arrested by now." However, on August 29, this Epoch Times published another report titled "Zhang Jielian: Greek Gods Chose to Break Off with Communist Party of China in the form of this Conflagration" (http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/7/8/291816913.htm). This report went all out to explain how the fire revealed Greek Gods' message and how the fire predicted the misfortune of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the worsening situation of China's human rights.

It is really strange how a fire disaster in Greece is interrelated with Beijing Olympic Games and China's human rights. So it goes without saying that such kind of paradoxical reports will not convince readers at all. Such media will not obtain any public confidence at all.

More weird reports can be found from Falun Gong's media. Here is a case in point.

Example 2: On December 26, 2005, Falun Gong's Asia-Pacific Zhengwu Net published an article titled "A year-and-half baby advising his grandfather to quit Communist Party of China" (http://www.zhengwunet.org/zhengw...05/12/26/51466.html). It vividly described how a baby of one year and a half advised his grandfather to quit Communist Party of China. How funny the report is! People with few life experience know clearly that a baby of one year and a half can only do some babbling and it is impossible for him to know what "party" means. How can the baby advise his grandfather to quit Communist Party? It is really a weird fallacy.

Falun Gong has invented many absurd stories of this kind.

Example 3: On October 8, 2007, Falun Gong's Renminbao.com issued an article titled "My Thoughts on Helping Hu Yaobang Quit Communist Party of China" (http://www.renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2007/10/8/45764.html). The author was assumed to be "Li Kai, an ordinary university student in Beijing" and the date was July 22, 2007. It is known to all that Hu Yaobang passed away on April 15, 1989. So how can a living person help another man died 18 years ago to quit the Party? Where did he get his thoughts? How will such absurd story convince the public?

Falun Gong media have also fabricated many groundless stories. The following is one example of this kind:

Example 4: It is about Udumbara. On October 8, 2007, Falun Gong's Epoch Times published an article "Udumbara, which blooms every three thousand years, is now blossoming in Huston of America" (http://mirror.epochtimes.com/gb/7/10/81859945.htm). It is written in the article that "Udumbara is from Sanskrit. Udumbara blooms every three thousand years. Its present blossom is not incidental. Instead it predicts that Buddhism will be spread widely in the world, which is the great fortune for human being. In fact, Sakyamuni has early revealed the message that pure Udumbara will be blooming in the world when  Saint King Falun is spreading Buddhism to all."

Let us first find out what Udumbara really is. A detailed answer has been found on Yahoo Net and the exact website is http://ks.cn.yahoo.com/question/1407090304660.html. The following is part of the answer: "The so-called Udumbara which was found in many places only bears farfetched resemblance with Udumbara depicted in Buddhist sutra. In fact what people have found is only the egg of bollworm. When bollworm lays eggs, it will secrete much mucilage which is made in form of thin and long handle so as to have the eggs hung. So it is not uncommon for people to find these strange-looking hung eggs on telegraph poles, steel tubes, leaves, grass branches or windows. Sometimes they will appear in temples and be mistaken as auspicious stuff which blooms every three thousand years. In fact, what people usually find is the empty shell of the laid eggs of bollworm and the shell is swinging in the breeze. Bollworm is a kind of beneficial insect and specially preys on vermin. How stupid it is to worship eggs of bollworm as divine objects!"

Besides scientific explanation of Udumbara, there are also some pictures to show the difference on the website. Readers who have interest can log onto the website to have a closer look.

However, Falun Gong media has kicked up a rumpus over "the blossom of Udumbara" and numerous articles have been written in this respect. For instance, "Udumbara appearing in several places in South Korea and Saint King Falun to preach Buddhism in the human world" (February 13, 2005, Renmin Press), "Udumbara, which blooms every three thousand years, is blossoming in the north of China" (June 18, 2007, Epoch Times), "Celestial phenomena in the world: why does Udumbara bloom in many places in South Korea?" (June 10, 2007, Zhengjian Net), "Udumbara found in Sydney" (August 24, 2007, Secret China News), "What does the blossom of Udumbara mean to us" (September 27, 2007, Minghui Net) The real intention of Falun Gong media making such a fuss is nothing but to disclose the so-called "providence". They intend to make use of this kind of uncommon natural phenomenon to mislead and fool readers instead of giving scientific explanation. No wonder they cannot gain any public confidence.

Examples of this kind can be found easily in Falun Gong's media. Due to the length of my article I will not present more examples here. But the above examples can make us realize thoroughly that Falun Gong's propaganda shows no public confidence, not to mention authoritativeness and social credit. Their reports and practices reveal to us clearly that Falun Gong media have deliberately fabricated many stories to entrap readers and to serve for their ulterior and political intention of anti-China and anti-Communist Party. However, Falun Gong media have greatly violated objective laws and their fabrication has totally ignored public confidence. So what they are doing is completely self-destructive and self-deceptive.

            
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