Remember back in 2012, when Mitt Romney wanted to steal the birdseed right out of poor Big Bird’s mouth by cutting funding to PBS? Well, it’s a damn good thing he didn’t succeed, because otherwise we’d be deprived of quality PBS programming like “Voices from the Frontline: China’s War on Poverty.”
The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross reports:
NEW: PBS partnered with CGTN, a Chinese foreign agent, on a pro-Beijing documentary airing this month.
I started looking into this after seeing an American businessman popping up in Chinese gov't outlets praising the regime's handling of coronavirus. https://t.co/YbuuFzD55k
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 15, 2020
Robert Kuhn, the American, gave $70k to PBS SoCal in recent years. That PBS affiliate, which also receives federal funds, has aired two of Kuhn's documentaries, which offer a light touch on issues in China.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 15, 2020
Kuhn's foundation, which produced the China films, received $500k from Jeffrey Epstein in 2018 for a PBS series on brain science.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 15, 2020
Kuhn is open about his ties to Chinese authorities. He hosted a delegation for the head of the State Council Information Office, which handles China's foreign propaganda.
He received the China Reform Friendship Medal from Xi Jinping.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 15, 2020
He's recently praised the Chinese Communist Party's response to coronavirus.
"Nowhere could it work like it works in China. The reason it works is because the party works, the Communist Party of China."
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 15, 2020
More from Ross:
PBS affiliates that receive millions of dollars in federal funding each year are airing a pro-Beijing documentary produced in conjunction with CGTN, a Chinese-government controlled media outlet that is registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department.
The film, “Voices from the Frontline: China’s War on Poverty,” did not disclose CGTN’s links to the Chinese government. Nor did it detail the ties that the film’s producer, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, has to Chinese officials and the government’s State Council Information Office, which specializes in foreign propaganda.
…
A spokesman for KOCE and KCET provided the Daily Caller News Foundation with a press release for the Kuhn film but did not respond to a detailed list of questions. PBS did not respond to a request for comment, nor did The Kuhn Foundation. Requests for comment submitted through Kuhn’s personal website were also not returned.
Recommended
Not returned? You don’t say.
Of course PBS did this. https://t.co/uwOtS1WWY9
— Mark C, austere BBQ scholar ?? (@UntraceableMC) May 15, 2020
How sad that this isn’t even surprising these days. So many of our media betters are more than willing to roll over for the ChiComs.
Great reporting. Thank you!
— RuralCreative (@creative_rural) May 15, 2020
Do yourselves a favor and read the whole thing. And then weep for the state of our media.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member