ERIC ZUESSE -- The Viciousness of U.S.-and-Allied ‘News’-Media: an Update

 

The Viciousness of U.S.-and-Allied ‘News’-Media: an Update

 

Eric Zuesse, December 19, 2021

 

UPDATE, 19 December 2021, of November 23rd report:

 

Yet again, the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has said, in public, “I need to stress one point that is extremely important, I have never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me, I have to clearly stress this point.” And, yet again, the lying Western ‘news’-media — which had previously reported lies that Saddam Hussein was six months from having a nuclear bomb, and famously lied also about so much else, concerning Libya, Ukraine, Syria, and many other nations — are reporting, instead, their unauthenticated allegations to the contrary, and are challenging (without evidence) the truthfulness of Peng’s statements about this matter.

 

In the latest, December 19th, Reuters ‘news’-report that quotes this statement from her, denying the truthfulness of the U.S.-and-allied allegations that she had said that she had been “sexually assaulted” by a former high Chinese official, Reuters raises the question as to whether China’s Government was forcing her to say that she had never said any such thing: “She also said that she had been living at home in Beijing without supervision.” That intentionally ambiguous allegation by Reuters about Peng’s statement that Reuters claimed to be reporting about (and they neither link to nor otherwise provide to the reader access to her statement here, to verify that they are accurately quoting her), could have related to a reporter’s question as to whether she was under some sort of house-arrest by China’s Government, but it also could have related, instead, to a question as to where she has been, and what she has been doing, during the past month. Reuters left this Reuters statement’s meaning hanging, didn’t explain it, at all, but obviously just wanted to leave readers thinking that she must be under house-arrest and forced to deny that she had ever alleged such “sexual assault.” If that isn’t vicious ‘news’-reporting, then what is?

 

Here was my news-report that was published on November 23rd, and that is now being updated:

 

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Here is a “Full translation of Peng Shuai's Weibo post, accusing [the former] Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault”, and it turns out NOT to have been accusing any “assault” by China’s Vice Premier but instead a mutually voluntary sexual and love attraction between those two, Zhang who seems to have had an unhappy marriage, and, as Peng phrased it, “our affection towards each other had nothing to do with money or power. But I have a hard time finding closure for, and coming to terms with our three-year-long relationship.”

 

She said that when she had first met Zhang “ten years ago in Tianjin, you wanted to have sex with me,” and Peng did not want sex with a married man, but, “About seven years ago, we had sex. Then, later on after you got promoted to be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing, you never contacted me again.” So: he was NOT a Politburo member when the affair started; and, as soon as he became one, he “never contacted me again.” But now that he has retired:

 

You said in those seven years, you never forgot about me, and you will treat me well etc... I was terrified and anxious. Taking into consideration the affection I had for you seven years ago, I agreed... yes, we had sex.

Romantic attraction is such a complicated thing that [no one can] explain it clearly. From that day on [3 years ago], I renewed my love for you. Throughout my time with you after that [now as a retired politician], purely based on our interactions, you were a very good person, and you treated me well. We talking about recent history, as well as ancient eras. You educated me on so many topics, and we had discussions about economics, politics. We never ran out of things to talk about. We played chess, sang, played table tennis, played pool and also played tennis together. We always had endless fun. It was as if our personalities fit perfectly together.

 

So, during the first three years, she had said no to sex with him, but then he got promoted to the Politburo and ceased pursuing her; but he retired seven years later, and “Taking into consideration the affection I had for you seven years ago, I agreed... yes, we had sex.” 

 

How, then, do the Western ’news’-media represent this as having been a case of “sexual assault”?

 

Of course, first of all, it is about censorship of the truth, because that English-language translation of Peng’s statement had been first posted to Reddit on November 4th; and, so, everything that it says OUGHT to have been the key source for the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-reports about the matter — but were not.

 

It’s all part of the U.S.-and-allied attempt to get the upcoming Beijing Olympics either cancelled or else sanctioned into embarrassment and failure for China’s Government. It’s not only about censorship-of-the-truth, but about lying-for-a-purpose. It’s about propaganda.

 

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.