U.S. White House spokesman Kelly McNany
On October 24, 2020, "New York Times " published an article written by the newspaper's reporter Kevin Ross for eight months, "How the Epoch Times became a machine for fabricating huge influence", which was extremely rare to use large-scale writing to directly criticize "Falun Gong" and its mouthpiece "Epoch Times".
Subsequently, Taiwan's current affairs commentator Tang Xianglong and his partner and well-known media person Ms. Chen Fengxin commented on the report on the current affairs program "serious dragon and phoenix match". They said that the "Falun Gong" cult organization uses the media form and uses a lot of fake news and wrong news to deeply intervene in politics and manipulate politics.
They mentioned why the New York Times named the Epoch Times. One of the reasons is that the Epoch Times is not on the White House Press Association list, but can directly enter the extremely difficult White House news briefing room, and was named by the White House to ask questions. This is unreasonable and not in line with the norm.
What is the White House News Briefing Room?
News Briefing Room is located on the west side of the White House. Its interior is very small, with only 49 seats in total (7 rows, 7 seats per row), and the distance between the first row and the publishing station is only two or three meters away. In the case of the new coronavirus epidemic, its crowded and closed space is an ideal environment for the spread of the virus. If someone at the scene does not wear a mask, it is easy to cause concentrated infection. Because of this, entering the news briefing room not only requires wearing a mask, but also at the press conference, the distance between reporters' seats has increased significantly, thus allowing fewer people to accommodate.
△The narrow and crowded White House news briefing room. The profile picture comes from the White House Museum
Chen Fengxin revealed in the "Serious Dragon and Phoenix" program that although the news briefing room is very small, media around the world want to enter this place. So except for the White House Press Association people can be fixed at a fixed time, and everyone has their own position, everyone else must queue outside. The White House Press Officer will check the media and journalists’ backgrounds. If you're lucky enough, you can enter at 9 a.m. or you might have to wait until afternoon. For reporters, it is common for them to wait outside in the snow and ice in thick clothes for a long time.
On April 8, 2020, there was a yellow prompt label for "social distance" behind the chair in the White House news briefing room. Source: Xinhua News Agency
Reporter White House News Briefing Room asked sharp questions
So, why is the Epoch Times, which is not among the American Association of News Journalists, able to enter the White House News Briefing Room? Who is the invitation?
A spokesperson for the Epoch Times told the Post in August this year that although they did not enter the White House Press Association schedule, their members were still able to attend the White House press briefing "at the invitation of White House spokesman Kelly McNaney."
As for what responsibilities the Epoch Times assumes, we can get a glimpse of a farce staged in the news briefing room recently.
According to the US news website The Intercept on December 4, White House spokesman Kayleigh McEnany hosted a press conference in the news briefing room on Wednesday.
reported that at that time, The Blade reporter Johnson (Johnson) asked McNany to explain why although LGBTQ sexual minority personnel were the first to be affected by HIV, President Trump ignored this group of people when he issued a statement on World AIDS Day this week?
McNany looked around and replied, "The President commemorated World AIDS Day in an unprecedented way yesterday." This commemorative method, known as "unprecedented", is to hang a large red ribbon in the White House. In fact, both Obama and Bush Jr. had hanged a big red ribbon in the White House to commemorate World AIDS Day.
November 30, 2010, Obama was in office. To commemorate World AIDS Day, a huge red ribbon hung in front of the White House in Washington. Source: China News Network Obviously, this answer could not satisfy Johnson.In the face of Johnson's questioning questions, in order to divert the embarrassing topic, McNaney had to name Charlotte Cuthbertson, who had a "friendly" face in the news briefing room, who was a member of the "Falun Gong" cult and a so-called reporter of the Epoch Times.
Cusbertson immediately knew the times and gave McNany a "life-saving straw" and turned the topic to the abolition of the Communications Code Act.
According to Reuters on December 3, Trump said on Twitter that if Congress does not repeal Article 230 of the Communications Regulation Act next year, he will directly veto the 2021 fiscal year " National Defense Authorization Act ", which has a scale of US$740 billion.
Photo/Getty Images
The article written by Cusbertson after attending the news briefing was published on the homepage of the Epoch Times, next to the so-called false reports of anti-Trump voter fraud. The headline of the column reads: Waiting for recounting votes, file a legal lawsuit, but the election results are still unclear.
As the Intercept mentioned in the report, the Epoch Times is a website that is extremely supportive of Trump, run by members of "Falun Gong". They regard Trump as a "helper" to deal with China and spend huge amounts of money to promote Trump.
Perhaps, letting him be a "child caregiver" for the White House press spokesperson at the press conference, and to speak for him some things that formal American media are not ashamed of. It is the most important responsibility of the Trump administration to let the Epoch Times enter the White House news briefing room!
Outsiders in the news briefing room
Image source: CCTV News
According to the latest data on the new crown epidemic in the United States, as of December 14, the United States has a total of 16.72 million confirmed cases and a total of more than 306,000 deaths. Clivan Gilman, a veteran who had visited Iraqi and is now an emergency department doctor, said that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States is worse than what he experienced on the Iraqi frontline.
The epidemic is so severe, but in such a cramped environment, the White House ignored the health and safety of journalists and brought irrelevant and unqualified personnel into the news briefing room.
The Intercept report was exposed. At the press conference that day, White House spokesman Kelly McNany's husband Sean Gilmartin was also present at the same time and did not wear a mask!
Another person is Alec Lace, the host of the conservative podcast "First Class Father". Alec Lace once said at the beginning of the channel that her "ultimate goal" was to interview Trump and asked him to be interviewed as a father. So far, many Trump fans, including US Secretary of State Pompeo , have shown their so-called "father's love wisdom" on the "First-class Father" program.
Alec Lace was also shouting to McNany when she participated in the White House press conference: "Kelly, you are so awesome!"
His appearance aroused dissatisfaction from the reporters present. Faced with doubts, Alec Lace admitted on Twitter that she did not have the required documents to enter the White House, but had visited the White House "many times" in the past 16 months, and McNaney's aides were arranging a meeting for them. But Alec Lace declined to say who brought him into the newsletter room.
The White House News Briefing Room is also an important place for the US president to come. The daily major news in the United States is also released from this room. It was originally a god-like existence in people's hearts. Today, those who rely on nepotism can enter, cult media that rely on political investment can enter, and even individuals who rely on self-media that flatter their leaders can enter. In the face of the new coronavirus epidemic, the central department of a major government is still like this. It is conceivable how strong its ability to deal with the epidemic is in the face of increasingly fragmented society.
Tips:
In May this year, after a fierce dispute with Twitter because his tweet was labeled "no solid basis", Trump signed an executive order requiring a re-examination of Article 230 of the Communications Code Act.
The Communications Code Act was a law passed in 1996 that gave social media companies immunity so that they would not be prosecuted for content that appears on their platforms or delete some of them. This law not only gives Internet giants the right to disclaim third-party content on the platform, but also gives the platform a wide range of freedom to clean up improper content.
According to Trump's instructions, the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a bill to the U.S. Congress in late September to reform Article 230, aiming to limit the immunity protections enjoyed by Internet companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, and force them to assume more responsibility for managing content on the platform.
