Why We Can’t Have an Objective Press: Because Journalistic Integrity Costs Exactly One (1) Comped Trip to Beijing
According to newly unearthed foreign-agent filings, a whole roster of elite, blue-check journalists from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Vox, and the Times were treated to all-expenses-paid junkets by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
Welcome back to Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, where today we examine the going exchange rate for the American Fourth Estate.
Historically, if a foreign adversary wanted to completely subvert a hostile nation's media apparatus, it required sophisticated espionage, blackmail, or perhaps a multi-billion-dollar corporate takeover. But as it turns out, the Chinese Communist Party discovered a much better bargain. You don't need to buy the New York Times or the Washington Post. You just need to offer their columnists a free vacation and some decent hors d'oeuvres.
According to newly unearthed foreign-agent filings, a whole roster of elite, blue-check journalists from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Vox, and the Times were treated to all-expenses-paid junkets by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF). For the uninitiated, CUSEF was founded by a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In layman's terms: it’s the smiling, PR-friendly arm of the CCP’s United Front, whose literal, stated purpose is to "co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition."
And boy, did they find some easy marks. Who knew the fierce, truth-to-power watchdogs of American democracy could be so easily transformed into lapdogs with a first-class flight and a guided tour of a military base?
Let’s look at the incredible Return on Investment Beijing got for footing the bill:
- David Rohde (MSNBC/Former New Yorker): After his CUSEF-funded spiritual awakening, Rohde penned a piece marveling at how much better the Chinese state is at running businesses than the free market. He then graciously informed the American working class that "large-scale manufacturing will never return to the United States," so we should all just get used to it. Translation: "Your factory job is dead, peasants, but the room service at the Beijing Ritz was spectacular. Have you tried coding?"
- Catherine Rampell (Washington Post): Rampell wrote dispatches parroting Beijing's grievances about U.S. aggression and Huawei. She dutifully slapped a disclosure at the bottom noting her trip was paid for by CUSEF, a nonprofit that "aims to improve Americans' understanding of China." Yes, Catherine. And the Death Star was just a nonprofit aimed at improving Alderaan's understanding of planetary mining.
- Steve Chapman (Chicago Tribune): Reached peak Dictator-Chic by tweeting, "China may have a bad human rights record, but you don’t have to take off your shoes for airport security." You hear that, folks? Sure, there's a sprawling surveillance state and political dissidents tend to mysteriously evaporate, but the TSA line at Beijing Capital International is so efficient!
- Matthew Yglesias (Vox Co-founder): Joked about wanting to give "Party flunkies notes" on how to better craft "propaganda." Matt, buddy, you didn't need to give them notes. You were the propaganda.
And then there's the Biden connection, because of course there is. Steve Clemons (former The Hill editor) was apparently such a VIP on these junkets that during a 2013 trip, then-Vice President Joe Biden literally introduced him to the Chinese Vice President as "a very important man," before jokingly trying to buy Clemons an ice cream bar with Hunter tagging along. You can't even write satire this on-the-nose. It’s like a political cartoon came to life and asked for two scoops of vanilla. Clemons later wrote that Biden "gets China" and that China would serve as the "anchor" of a new global order. (One wonders if the ice cream was an anchor flavor).
This is why we can’t have nice things. We can't have a functioning republic, or trust in the media, because the people tasked with holding the powerful accountable are too busy letting the powerful curate their itineraries.
The CCP didn't have to brainwash anyone in a Manchurian Candidate-style laboratory. They just looked at the American media establishment, realized it was filled with status-obsessed narcissists who love being treated like visiting royalty, and acted accordingly. They didn't buy the news. They just bought the access, set the menu, and let our "objective" journalists write the press releases for them.
So the next time you read a glossy op-ed in a paper of record explaining why American decline is actually a good thing and why we really shouldn't be so mean to Beijing, just remember: it didn't cost the author their soul to write it. It just cost their hosts a complimentary flight upgrade.
Filed from public reporting:
