American mainstream media outlets delivered plenty of propaganda on North Korea’s behalf this weekend. Somehow, as Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian regime continues to starve, torture and murder its own people—western news outlets are mesmerized by the dictatorship’s presence at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Take, for example, the following headlines – ones you’d normally expect to find in North Korea’s state-run media. On Saturday, I found them in my Twitter feed:
“Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the winter Olympics”
“The ‘Ivanka Trump of North Korea’ captivates people in the South at the Olympics”
“North Korea’s cheerleaders steal spotlight at Winter Games with synchronized chants”
“North Korea is winning the Olympics—and it’s not because of sports”
The shameful coverage of this year’s Olympics began even before the opening ceremony. Last month, NBC’s Lester Holt caused a stir for his reporting from a North Korean ski resort in which he gleefully called it a “source of immense pride for a country trying to present a new and modern face to the world” ahead of the games. The flub prompted widespread criticism, but apparently that debacle was merely the precursor for what was to come once the games began.
As the opening ceremony unfolded in PyeongChang, television cameras were fixed on Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of dictator Kim Jong Un. Some in the media even comparedher to Ivanka Trump. CNN noted that her “warm message” has apparently “struck a chord with the public.”
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, Kim Yo Jong is the Vice Director of the Workers’ Party of Korea Propaganda and Agitation Department. Unfortunately, it seems that our press made her job exceptionally easy this weekend.
The complete story here > Media's Olympic-level North Korea fawning is a disgrace