On February 6, 2008, the Chinese New Year Eve, New York Times published an onymous news feature "A Glimpse of Chinese Culture that Some Find Hard to Watch". In the article, this leading American newspaper exposed the facts about the Chinese New Year Splendor organized by the Falun Gong organization, including Falun Gong cheating the public to watch the show with contemptible tricks, arousing indignation among the local community against its propaganda during the show,the audience leaving the show halfway and in the end the show was coldly received.
Several days later, an anonymous article entitled "Notorious Records of U.S. New York Times in Fabricating" was posted one some BBS. The article devoted four paragraphs in retaliating Eric Konigsberg, the New York Times reporter who wrote the above-mentioned article. Here is the text:
Notorious reporter Eric Konigsberg
It is learnt from the internet that uncle of Eric Konigsberg's father Harold Kay Konigsberg was a hit man of New Jersey Mafia who had murdered more that 20 people and had been jailed in at least 15 prisons.
As a student, Eric Konigsberg used to boast his family. When he grew up, he wrote a book "Blood Relations" based on his interviews with family members of the victims. In the book, he not only portrayed the bloody nature or his great-uncle, but also attempted to explore the "adorable and charming side" of this criminal.
Relatives of Eric Konigsberg were every antipathetic to him in doing this. His grandmother evicted him out of his family; many relatives felt very ashamed and his great-uncle even threatened to kill him if he published an article about him! The book was still published and a book review released on The San Diego Union-Tribune commented it with a concise and comprehensive title: "The bad seed".
Articles of Eric Konigsberg are mostly of negative reports and slandering words, in which no positive or virtuous information can be sensed. In his report on an incident in which kids were shot, Eric Konigsberg ruthlessly commented in a harsh tone, "a cosmetic matter, at this point."
Judging by its content and style and the occasion when it was released, this article is doubtlessly written by Falun Gong. Interestingly, although Falun Gong media have been notorious in slandering Chinese leaders and instigating animosity, this article is not kept on the leading Falun Gong media such as Epoch Times and Minghui Net. Or Falun Gong itself is aware that such defaming on New York Times reporter may bring it nothing but lawsuit. In the meantime, we noted that in just a few days, Epoch Times alone has published dozens of articles in an effort of denouncing and condemning New York Times, e.g.: "The Gala Still Warmly Welcomed After New York Times Published Article Defaming Divine Troupe", "New York Times Article Need to be Isolated under the Sun", "President of Transportation Corporation: I Didn't ever Care about what it (New York Times) Says", "New York Times Disgraced for Distorting the Gala", "Vice-president of a Firm says New York Times Inequitable and Biased", "Divine Troupe Shows Warmly Welcomed and its Performance Shocked some 70,000 Audience", "New York Time Article Failed in Dissuading New Yorkers Favoring the Divine Troupe", "New York Dealer: Chinese New Year Splendor is a Hottest Topic in Manhattan", "International Baseball Association Commissioner still Came to the Show after Reading New York Times Report", "New York Chinese Dealer: Witnessing the Splendid Show with your Own Eyes", "Zhang Tianliang: Be careful to Tell a Lie in a Liberal Society", "Decorating Designer: New York Times shall Apologize", "College Music Teacher: I didn't See Anything relating to Propaganda but Felt it Very Good!", "New York Times Article Overreached in Defaming Divine Troupe and the Show on Saturday Afternoon Warmly welcomed" and so on.
Compared with its low-grade Gala show, these numerous articles by Falun Gong might be better termed as a "splendor" of Falun Gong. Such "splendor" throws out to the public that Falun Gong is not to be offended by any medium.
Articles on the website of Epoch Times reiterated the same ideas. First, there was a large audience for Falun Gong Gala. For instance, Epoch Times published on February 9th an article "New York Times Sniped on the Chinese New Year" written by Ren Baiming (obviously a fake name). The article said, "Obviously reporter E had no interest in applauses in the theater and 99% of the audience who stayed there enjoying the show but those who can serve for his particular needs in fabricating his article." People who kept a little memory about the Gala show would acknowledge that there was just 1% of the audience instead of 99% as the Epoch Times claimed who had really stayed there until the show ended. Other articles on Epoch Times even sided with photos showing a large audience in the show. Scrupulous reader might find that there was not even one Chinese in the photo.
Second, Falun Gong media denounced and vituperated the New York Times as well. For instance, the above-mentioned article "New York Times Sniped on the Chinese New Year" on Epoch Times denounced New York Times by quoting others, "Now, New York Times further carries forward its outstanding fabricating practices. We can feel its exoteric left-wing prejudice and bluffing tricks in its daily news reports. "
In describing the background of Falun Gong and its founder, Eric Konigsberg's article recalled Li Hongzhi's answer to the question about aliens during an interview with a Time magazine reporter in 1999. For this, Epoch Times article criticized the New York Times reporter to have quoted out of context, and finally even turned into a personal assault, "It seems that author of the New York Times article is not a good guy." By the way, during that interview that had annoyed Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi boasted, "aliens from other planets are responsible for corrupting mankind by teaching modern science."
This article that denounced the New York Times article was included in "Global Favorable Comments" on the Epoch Times Net.
It seems that Falun Gong really cannot be offended. This has been proved in mainland China before Chinese government outlawed the organization. Since Falun Gong became the focus of concern for the first time in 1994 when cases of Falun Gong resulting in practitioners' death or mentally disordered were revealed, Falun Gong has besieged tens of media because of such similar reports. Since now New York Times gets involved, I wish Eric Konigsberg could be luckier than BBC reporter James Miles. The later objectively reported truth about Falun Gong in 1998. After that, Falun Gong wrote to BBC president, UK ambassador to China and British Prime Minister, asking BBC to have an open apology. They even intimidated the BBC reporter that criticizing Falun Gong was "disrupting the public interest of the Chinese society, seriously infringing upon relevant Chinese Laws, disrupting the social stability in China, smearing the modernization construction of Chinese people and in fact unfriendly and irresponsible to Chinese government as well as its people." Here I suggest great-nephew of the "New Jersey Mafia hit man" to have a scan of the Minghui Net (English version as Falun Dafa Clearwisdom), where it was proclaimed to the public with at least 2489 "cases of retribution for evildoing" that anyone including New York Times who dared to offend Falun Gong would face dooms such as "dying of cancer".
(Facts.org.cn, February 22, 2008)
