Thursday, April 25, 2024

Major Publication Fails To Disclose Chinese Conflict of Interest

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seems to be taking 's side on a potential ban.

Given that Forbes is largely owned by and China-based investors, that seems reasonable enough. If a Chinese company, , can be forced to sell TikTok – or be banned from the U.S. – then other China-based investors in American media, like, say, Forbes, might get worried.

But there's a disclosure Forbes should have made at this point. Not making the disclosure is regarded as misinformation, even disinformation. Because people don't know, they cannot evaluate whether Forbes' arguments are pure or are about its own financial interests. This is a fundamental issue of American journalistic ethics.

But Forbes hasn't followed it. Its leading online article is all about how TikTok aids the American economy. It's a bit breathless about how wonderful it is but not entirely untrue. They also ran a piece a few days back about how banning TikTok wouldn't solve the privacy issue because look at what happened in India.

The issue is that the majority of Forbes was bought by those Hong Kong, China, interests some years back. There has long been speculation that, as the Washington Post details, this ownership has meant that there are editorial decisions being made at Forbes based upon China's, or at least Chinese, interests.

Think of it this way. We have two ways to describe this story. Forbes tells us that TikTok is good for the American . OK. On the other way, Chinese-owned company says taking from a Chinese-owned company is a bad idea. OK. We can see that both stories could be true. We also have very different ideas of how much notice we'd take of one story and how much of the other. But both descriptions are of the same story. So, how much notice are we supposed to take of it?

That's the reason for making the disclosure. Forbes really should have said, in the story, that they are owned by Chinese business interests. Not to do so is a breach of journalistic ethics.

It's not difficult to do so. My disclosure is that I contributed to Forbes online around the time of the story the Post talks about above. I was subsequently fired over disagreements about my writing (not concerning China in the slightest). Now you know enough to decide what to believe. That's what Forbes should have done when writing about TikTok and ByteDance. Pointed out that they are also an American media brand owned by Chinese interests. Not to do so is both unethical and also misinformation.

This article originally appeared in Accuracy in Media. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Any and all Chinese businesses shares in American businesses all property that was sold to any foreign country including China needs revoked immediately all illegals refugees including Chinese need immediately rounded up removed from this country, No welfare, medical, food stamps, housing to any illegals of any kind, those that come here legally need to have to be a citizen working citizen at 15 years paid into programs before able to access any programs including Social Security, welfare,those Americans that able bodied must hold a job in good standing to be able to get help, only supplement help, it is Taxpayers Money so no free ride, only mothers with under school age children can get help but government needs to go after the fathers of these children,

  2. I wasn’t aware of that with Forbes. I guess anyone can be bought by Chinese money. Better brush up on our Mandarin.

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