In my mailbox on Jan. 20, I received an unsolicited copy of the Epoch Times, a publication that rose to prominence in the West with the full-throated backing of Donald Trump. My free copy is full of pro-Trump propaganda. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the Epoch Times spent $1.5 million on 11,000 pro-Trump ads over six months in 2019, second only to the Trump campaign itself. They claim in their ad that they are an independent publication and “the majority of our funding comes from everyday Americans like you” when in reality their cheap subscription rates are subsidized by wealthy far-right anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists.
The Epoch Times was set up as a Chinese-language newspaper by John Tang, a Falun Gong practitioner based in the U.S. Falon Gong is a mixture of physical exercises, mental disciplines and moral tenets. It was founded in northern China by Li Honzhi. His writings call homosexuality a “filthy, deviant state of mind” and suggests that paradises are racially segregated.
Toward the end of 2020, a blizzard of pro-Trump content from the Epoch Times in Germany helped cultivate an obsession with the outgoing U.S. president. The news content, along with the local QAnon, helped to inspire and organize rallies against COVID restrictions.
We need to pay more attention to the foreign influence in our election process.
Carole Boster
Huntington
Source Link：https://www.herald-dispatch.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-epoch-times-is-not-a-trustworthy-news-source/article_fb200188-1e83-5ba8-8cdd-c38f07d8db52.html
