The Times’s China syndrome

Last year the Washington Free Beacon reported that the New York Times had quietly deleted hundreds of “advertorials” that the Chinese Communist Party paid to publish. This week the Spectator published Dominic Green’s column reporting that the Times suppressed any inquiry into the origins of the Covid epidemic.

Dominic’s column links to and builds on the Free Beacon story. Dominic also links to Times reporter Alexandra Stevenson’s tweet below, which is linked in turn to her Times story.

Last night Tucker Carlson put these two stories together in his opening monologue (video below).

The Times submitted this statement to the Spectator:

Any accusation that the New York Times would refuse to investigate the origins of a pandemic is ridiculous.

In 2020, The New York Times Company made the decision to stop accepting and hosting branded content ads from state media, which includes China Daily. We do not discuss revenue beyond what is our quarterly earnings reports.

Lastly, where you mention Alexandra Stevenson’s article, I’d like to point out that our story — as is clear from the subheading and lead paragraph — was focused on speculation about a bioweapon manufactured by the Chinese government, an idea that was and is outside of the mainstream discussion among scientists.

Dominic includes the Times statement without further comment. It reads to me like an old-fashioned nondenial denial.

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