For a Media That Loathes Russian Propaganda, They Certainly Love Pushing North Korea’s

Joseph A. WulfsohnFeb 11th, 2018, 12:45 pm
 

For over a year, American politics have been tainted by Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. From their attempts to hack into our voting system, their alleged collusion with the Trump campaign, their involvement in the Democrat-funded dossier, and the spreading of disinformation, Vladimir Putin is laughing for his contribution of the division, animosity, and erosion of trust that has occurred in this country since Donald Trump was elected president.

So you’d think that U.S. media would stand firm against an authoritarian regime and their efforts to undermine us, right? Well, the 2018 Winter Olympics have proven otherwise.

There was lots of uncertainty leading up to North Korea’s involvement in the Olympics in Pyeongchang, since they’ve been cordial, for lack of a better term, with South Korea and their collaboration in the games. But if you watched or read some of the coverage, you might have forgotten that North Korea is a cruel dictatorship.

The nauseating “reporting” began weeks ago with NBC’s Lester Holt, whose visit to North Korea apparently went splendidly.

“But we have been treated with respect here,” Holt told viewers. “We stayed in a guest house outside Pyongyang last night and then made our way to this ski resort to get a look at a part of North Korea that most Americans don’t see, and certainly a part they would like us to see.”

It was as if Holt was reading from a script written by Kim Jong-un himself. However, it wasn’t until the games began when the seals in the press ate from the palm of North Korea’s hands.

There was an unfathomable obsession with Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, who serves as a high-ranking member of North Korea’s Communist Party as well as the top official in the country’s “Propaganda and Agitation Department.” So obviously, she has an expertise in fooling the people of her country. And now, she’s fooling the American media.

CNN published what was practically a puff piece of Kim Yo Jong. Here’s their headline:

And the actual article is somehow worse:

“With a smile, a handshake and a warm message in South Korea’s presidential guest book, Kim Yo Jong has struck a chord with the public just one day into the PyeongChang Games.”
With the headline, “The ‘Ivanka Trump of North Korea’ Captivates People in the South at The Olympics,”  The Washington Post offered their own favorable profile of the dictator’s sister as if she were a down-to-earth British royal:

They marveled at her barely-there makeup and her lack of bling. They commented on her plain black outfits and simple purse. They noted the flower-shaped clip that kept her hair back in a no-nonsense style.

Here she was, a political princess, but the North Korean “first sister” had none of the hallmarks of power and wealth that Koreans south of the divide have come to expect. In looks-obsessed South Korea, many 20-something women list plastic surgery and brand-name bags as life goals.

Most of all, Kim Yo Jong was an enigma. Just like them, but nothing like them. A woman with a sphinxlike smile who gave nothing away during her three-day Olympic-related visit to South Korea as brother Kim Jong Un’s special envoy.

WaPo national correspondent Philip Bump shared a gif of Kim Yo Jong giving a “deadly side-eye” to Vice President Mike Pence during the opening ceremony in a tweet that has since been deleted after it went viral.

In another tweet lacking any self-awareness, New Republic senior editor Jeet Heer openly admitted that North Korea’s “charm offensive is surprisingly successful.”

Then there was North Korea’s creepy cheerleading squad that drew attention during the games. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, and even NBC fell head over heels over the spectacle (NBC later deleted its tweet.)

While these media outlets treat this cheerleading squad like they’re One Direction, there’s a solid chance that these women would have faced death or imprisonment if they refused to cheer on the regime.

But of all the fawning over the Hermit Kingdom’s Olympic showing, this headline from the liberal outlet ThinkProgress may take the cake.

In the article, they out of their way to trash the vice president, painting him as a big jerk for not being friendly to the ruthless dictatorship.

So, while Vice President Mike Pence has made no effort to extend a diplomatic hand — he actually avoided shaking hands with Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attending the Winter Games — and refused to stand up for any national anthem other than that of the U.S., North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s Jae-in Moon are planning to meet in Pyongyang.

In other words, they have found themselves rooting for a malevolent country like North Korea simply because they oppose anything and everything the Trump presidency does. Their blind hatred for this administration is literally aligning them with the enemy. And sadly, they’re not alone.

What’s so disturbing about this sugar-coated coverage of North Korea is that it whitewashes the atrocities, the starvation, the human rights violations of its people and the threats to our allies. It wasn’t long ago that that the regime threatened war with the U.S. over a Seth Rogen movie, that they released 22-year-old American student Otto Warmbier knowing that he was going to die from the abuse he faced in prison, that they shot a missile over Japan,  and that we learned the incredible story about North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho at the State of the Union.

It’s as if the media has forgotten what evil Kim Jong-un and his sister are responsible for, and that their totalitarian regime is deliberately using the Winter Olympics to cover up and whitewash the atrocities they commit at home. This favorable coverage of North Korea is a disgrace to journalism, and those who fed into the regime’s propaganda machine ought to be ashamed.

 

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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