Virginia Radio Station Broadcasting Chinese Propaganda (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader writes: An investigation by Reuters has uncovered a radio station located just outside Washington, D.C. that broadcasts dedicated Chinese propaganda to the U.S. capital and the surrounding area. In 2009, under new ownership, Virginia-based station WAGE erected new broadcast towers, amplifying its signal by ten times, and changed its call letters to WCRW, for "China Radio Washington." All WCRW programming shares a common theme, with newscasts that avoid any criticism of China and are critical of Beijing's political enemies; for example, a report on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year did not explain why people were in the streets, and said only that the demonstrations had "failed without support." WCRW's American owners claim they have no input on content and are only rebroadcasting programming provided to them by a state-sponsored Chinese company to which they lease the airtime. U.S. law requires that anyone seeking to influence American policy or public opinion on behalf of a foreign government must register with the Department of Justice, but according to Reuters, government officials didn't even know WCRW existed until Reuters told them about it.

Comments

You're doing it wrong

[Tablizer]

Dummies, if you want to influence Washington, you don't put up radio stations, you bribe politicians directly. The Supreme Court made doing so legal.

Re:You're doing it wrong

[Fire_Wraith]

In layman's terms, they're still required to do the "wink wink, nudge nudge" part, and per Citizens United, that means that because there is no direct transfer of funds, or quid pro quo, then that makes everything alright.

The problem is that it's very easy to disguise certain levels of collusion that isn't supposed to happen, and given the ridiculous/ludicrous levels of money being tossed around, it strains credulity for everyone except the Supreme Court apparently to say there isn't something dirty going on.

Let me put it another way. If Billionaire Bob decides to donate $50 million to the "Fund Attack Ads Against Candidate Alice's Opponents" PAC, do we really think that means Alice won't notice, or that it's not really a donation to Alice because FAAACAO PAC is a theoretically independent organization that just happens to be run by Alice's longtime best friend, who she totally never talks to about anything election related? Unless Eve happens to overhear them talking and tells the press about them colluding, but by then the election is probably long over, and the FEC has been pretty toothless of late... but that's another complaint.

Re:Well duh

[Nidi62]

"U.S. law requires that anyone seeking to influence American policy or public opinion on behalf of a foreign government must register with the Department of Justice, but according to Reuters, government officials didn't even know WCRW existed until Reuters told them about it."

Like anyone in Washington does their job.

They're too busy trying to influence American policy and public opinion on behalf of our own government.

Re:so...

[MountainLogic]

Yes, the FCC is monitoring radio waves in the capitol and the rest of the country, but is less likely to monitor the content broadcast on the radio waves unless here is a complaint.

Sounds a lot like NBC, CBS and ABC.

[r-diddly]

- avoids any criticism of [the US] - CHECK
- critical of [Washington's] political enemies - CHECK
- for example, a report on pro-democracy protests in [New York and nationwide] [in 2011] did not explain why people were in the streets, and said only that the demonstrations had "failed without support"

On the other hand, one key difference is that the Chinese propagandists claim they're just passing along government propaganda, whereas the American ones deny they are.

Re:Well duh

[Spy Handler]

You are free to say whatever you want. However the gov't has unlimited moderation points and can put you at -1.

Re:Nor did anyone else.

[jandrese]

Right wing nutcases thrive on AM radio. The format helps filter out anybody with opposing viewpoints or unfortunate access to factual information.

Can't be working that well, then

[wonkey_monkey]

An investigation by Reuters has uncovered a radio station located just outside Washington, D.C. that broadcasts dedicated Chinese propaganda to the U.S. capital and the surrounding area.

If it takes an investigation by Reuters before anyone's even aware of your radio station, you're not doing a very good job.