White House Slams Voice of America; VOA Fights Back

Voice of America

11 Apr 2020, 09:35 GMT+10

"WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday launched an unusual attack on the congressionally funded Voice of America, the U.S. broadcaster that for decades has provided independent news reporting around the world.

In a broadside directed against VOA's coverage of the pandemic and China on Friday, an official White House publication accused it of using taxpayer money "to speak for authoritarian regimes" because it covered the lifting of the lockdown in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first emerged. VOA promptly fired back, defending its coverage.

"Voice of America spends your money to speak for authoritarian regimes," the White House said in its "1600 Daily" email summary of news and events. It said VOA's roughly $200 million annual budget should be spent on its mission to "tell America's story" and "present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively" to global audiences.

But, citing a VOA report from earlier this week on the lifting of travel restrictions and easing of the lockdown in Wuhan, the White House said that "VOA too often speaks for America's adversaries - not its citizens." It noted that VOA had also recently pointed out comments by Iran's foreign minister critical of the U.S.

'Disgrace'

Friday's attack followed another barb directed at VOA on Thursday by White House social media director Dan Scavino, who branded VOA a "disgrace" in a tweet.

VOA fired back at both attacks, responding to Scavino on Twitter and defending its coverage as unbiased. It noted that it is required by law to present all sides of an issue.

"One of the big differences between publicly funded independent media, like the Voice of America, and state-controlled media is that we are free to show all sides of an issue and are actually mandated to do so by law as stated in the VOA Charter," director Amanda Bennett said in a lengthy statement that included links to numerous VOA stories highlighting shortcomings in China's response to the virus.

Bennett noted that VOA, along with several other U.S. news outlets, has been effectively barred from working in China but that it continues to report and broadcast news from inside the country.

VOA is run by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which also oversees other government-funded broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia."

https://www.chinanews.net/news/264640404/white-house-slams-voice-of-america-voa-fights-back

Saudis, Russia press on with oil cut deal at G20 talks

U.S. offers help

Today 05:44 am JST

"Top oil nations pushed to finalise a deal on sweeping oil cuts at G20 talks on Friday to lift prices slammed by the coronavirus crisis with Russia and Saudi Arabia taking the lion's share and the United States showing unusual willingness to help out.

Riyadh, Moscow and its allies, which make up the informal OPEC+ group, had forged a pact to curb crude production by the equivalent of 10% of global supplies in marathon talks on Thursday and said they wanted others to cut a further 5%.

But efforts to conclude the OPEC+ deal hit the buffers when Mexico insisted it would only cut its output by a quarter of the amount demanded by OPEC+, although Mexico's president said Washington had offered to make extra cuts on his behalf.

President Donald Trump, who had threatened Saudi Arabia with oil tariffs if it didn't fix oversupply in the market, said the United States was willing to help Mexico by picking up "some of the slack", adding that Washington expected to be reimbursed.

Oil markets were closed on Friday when the G20 energy minister held a video conference, hosted by Saudi Arabia, but prices had failed to rally after Thursday's talks on cuts - which would be the biggest in history - as a 15% drop in global supplies still leaves a huge overhang of oil when demand has plunged 30%."

moar:

https://japantoday.com/category/world/update-7-saudi-russia-press-on-with-oil-cut-deal-at-g20-talks-u.s.-offers-help

Beijing hotels to require guests to show negative coronavirus

test results

3 HOURS AGO

"BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Starting on Sunday (April 12), travellers who arrive in Beijing will be required to provide negative coronavirus test results when they check in to hotels in the capital, under a new measure announced on Friday.

Mr Zhou Weimin, a senior official at the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said the authorities will strengthen control and management of people who come to Beijing and stay in hotels to avoid any loopholes."

moar:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/beijing-hotels-to-require-guests-to-show-negative-coronavirus-test-results

all pre planned tyranny watch the water

Coronavirus conspiracies like that bogus 5G claim are

running the Internet

April 10, 2020040

"As the United States and much of the world scramble to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, some virus-related conspiracy theories are taking off. Specifically, a false conspiracy claim that 5G technology is linked to COVID-19 gained ground, accelerating from darkness to the mainstream shaken through conspiracy theorists who had been chattering about 5G conspiracies for years.

While there is a scientific consensus on the basic medical realities of COVID-19, researchers are still filling in the gaps in a virus that no one knew existed five months ago. That relative paucity of information opens the way for ideas usually relegated to the fringes of the Internet into the broader conversation about the pandemic, a dangerous feature of an unprecedented global health crisis.

According to Yonder, an artificial intelligence company that monitors online conversations, including disinformation, conspiracies that would normally remain in fringe groups are traveling to the mainstream faster during the epidemic.

A report on the company's misinformation about the coronavirus notes that "the mainstream is unusually accepting conspiracy thinking, rumors, alarm, or panic" during uncertain times, a phenomenon that explains the misinformation movement we're seeing now.

While the company estimates that it would normally take six to eight months for a "marginal narrative" to reach the mainstream from the edges of the Internet, that interval seems like three to 14 days in the middle of COVID-19.

"In the current infodemic, we have seen conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation spread across the Internet at unprecedented speed," Yonder chief innovation officer Ryan Fox told Newsdio. He believes the trend represents the outsized influence of "small groups of hyper passionate individuals" on driving misinformation, such as 5G claims.

While 5G claims about the coronavirus are new, 5G conspiracies are not. "Misinformation 5G from online factions like QAnon or Anti-Vaxxers has been around for months, but it's accelerating to the mainstream much more quickly due to its association with COVID-19," Fox said."

moar:

https://newsdio.com/coronavirus-conspiracies-like-that-bogus-5g-claim-are-running-the-internet-newsdio/89095/

blame deaths on pepe for questioning narrative

are you really watching the water?

all the water not muh news mud puddle water

moar pain?!?!!??!

>>8757265

GM SAM

>>8757281

kek

just keep talking….

never interfere with your enemy when they are making mistakes!

>>8757310

i will steal your soul, pilgrim

>>8757419

Sure he did catholic gatekeeper fag sure he did….

>>8757422

awwww you cant tell that something is going on under the radar here and you think I am "Weird" or "toxic" and "strange" because you don't know WTF you are talking about OR you are one of them and frankly I do not care which anymoar….

fuck off

>>8757432

not notable because muh catholic jesuit gatekeepers be the sitch in the kitch most of the time….

>>8757439

this is true kek

>>8757450