Part I

Yeah she quotes the CIA and state department (why would they lie?), and doesn't question it at all, which flies in the face of her "journalistic process" nonsense at the end.

"I remember my first, brief meeting with Seymour Hersh in Beirut in 2009. I was based there for the BBC..."

Of course! The British government propaganda station only reports fair and true information! Let us now critique his relations to Assad and gloss over this...

"But by the time the Syrian civil war sent shockwaves through the Middle East, Hersh’s relationship with the Assads seemed to affect his journalism. In Syria’s ugly, bloody civil war, he took the dictator’s side, claiming — against all existing evidence — that it was the rebels and not the regime who used sarin gas in chemical attacks. Unlike Hersh’s investigations into America’s chemical warfare in the 1960s, his Syria reporting seemed to be based on his assumption that the U.S. government lies, rather than witnesses or evidence"

The U.S. government does lie. Consistently. And where is her skepticism when it came to uncritically quoting the state department earlier (don't worry, she questions Russia's acceptance of the theory)? It has returned, it seems, only to provide no evidence for her point but merely suggest that the evidence exists.

"This is how disinfo 101 works... A piece is published, it triggers a reaction. Media then reports on the reaction, further extending the lifespan of that original piece.”

???

Part II

Let's see how much "disinfo" we can find in another article on this site:

"Pearls, rhino horns and arsenic: Covid-hit North Koreans advised to turn to traditional medicine"

"... guards were issued shoot-to-kill orders along the hermit country’s border with China, while state media warned people that everything from snow, to birds, to trash in the ocean could carry COVID. Citizens were ordered inside on numerous occasions, supposedly to shelter from 'dust storms from China' that the government feared could carry the virus."

Shoot to kill orders? This is shocking... surely the link will follow to some authoritative source on the matter (it's another one of her articles). And in this article, she just claims the same thing without any citation. Is this not how disinformation actually works? There's no link to state media on the warning of snow carrying COVID, but there is a link for their claim that state media suggested people stay inside because of dust storms. This links to a BBC article which states:

"Yellow dust refers to sand from Mongolian and Chinese deserts that blows into North and South Korea at certain times of the year. It is intermingled with toxic dust that for years has raised health concerns in both countries."

So they have legitimate concerns.

"North Korea’s main state-run outlet, Rodong Sinmun, has published official treatment advice for the virus. It advises people to take antibiotics, which are not effective in fighting the virus, as they treat bacterial infections. The newspaper also recommended dairy products and folk remedies like honeysuckle flowers and willow tree leaves. It also called for a medicine called angunguhwanghwan, a traditional North Korean concoction that contains pearls, rhino horn and gold leaf, as well as dangerous levels of mercury, lead and arsenic"

Again, quite shocking. No link is given to Rodong Sinmun but instead to NK News. The article contains no citations for its quotes from state media.

"North Korea has a track record of developing scientifically unproven treatments, such as injections made from ginseng which it claimed could cure AIDS. Pushing bogus cures is a family trait in hermetic, isolated states"

This claim is cited from an NPR article. NPR is a U.S. government affiliated news service, but we will see what they have to say:

"The World Health Organization says there's no known cure or vaccine for MERS, but state-run media in Pyongyang reports a wonder drug called Kumdang-2 will do the trick. The report makes no mention of whether Pyongyang is going to offer this miracle compound to its neighbor to the south. Or as the news agency puts it: 'the Korean puppet authorities' in Seoul. Note to readers: The next few paragraphs require us to use the word 'allegedly' more than a few times"

That note is included in the original article (go check). Why? Because they don't actually have any direct examples of state media suggesting this. (Note: there is no link for the "Pyongyang state-run media report" in the paragraph). They will say this is because it is difficult to access information on the DPRK, except both Rodong Sinmun and KCNA are publicly accessible in multiple languages online. Some articles aren't automatically translated into English, but this doesn't require an anonymous source to work around.

"While the government has announced that the military will be used to deliver supplies to people in the most need, Dr. Lim tells me the allocation of these scarce resources will likely be based on loyalty to the party — meaning that many North Koreans are likely to resort to alternative treatments"

No need to cite the government announcement, journalism is hard.

Part III

Now I found another report of Natalia's (author of the first article) that made me really unwell. It's titled: "A boom in 3D-printed guns, North Korean cat hunters and China versus Pfizer" seen here. The issue I'll be discussing is the middle item "North Korean cat hunters." Natalie writes:

"North Koreans along the country’s border have been ordered to kill stray cats, because they could 'bring the virus from China'"

This is deeply disturbing. The order is cited from Daily NK (which is funded by the NED, which itself is funded annually by congress). The article cites an anonymous source for the claim.

It seems Natalia is by far a more experienced purveyor of misinformation than anyone else. Far more reliant on trusting government sources at their word, far more interested in fabricating details to suit her agenda, etc.

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