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The White House ripped into Voice of America (VOA), a federally funded news service, on Friday, claiming it used taxpayer money to further Chinese propaganda surrounding the coronavirus.
"Voice of America is a global news network funded by American taxpayers," a White House statement read. "It spends about $200 million each year on its mission to 'tell America’s story' and 'present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively' to people around the globe. Today, however, VOA too often speaks for America’s adversaries -- not its citizens."
The unsigned statement -- titled, "Amid a Pandemic, Voice of America Spends Your Money to Promote Foreign Propaganda" -- specifically took issue with a tweet featuring video of China celebrating the end of Wuhan's coronavirus lockdown. It also claimed that VOA called China's response a "model" that much of the world copied.
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White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino called out that tweet on Thursday.
"Even worse," the White House release read, "while much of the U.S. media takes its lead from China, VOA went one step further: It created graphics with Communist government statistics to compare China’s Coronavirus death toll to America’s. As intelligence experts point out, there is simply no way to verify the accuracy of China’s numbers."
China previously said it would kick out VOA, along with other U.S. outlets. Beijing claimed it was retaliation for the Trump administration limiting the number of Chinese citizens from five state-run news organizations operating in the U.S.
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VOA Director Amanda Bennett defended the outlet in a statement posted to VOA's website. "Despite China’s attempt to hamper factual journalism on its response to the pandemic inside its borders, VOA continues to bring news from inside China to its global audiences and to Chinese citizens," she said. "VOA has thoroughly debunked much of the information coming from the Chinese government and government-controlled media."
Her statement also pointed to a long list of articles on Chinese misinformation and statistics. Those included, for example: "In China, officials exclude asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers from data," and "Estimates show Wuhan death toll far higher than official figure."
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Bennett also resonded to Scavino via Twitter, asserting that her outlet was "totally independent" and dedicated to fact-checking.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you what prompted it,” Bennett said of the White House's attack, according to The Washington Post. “I don’t actually know. It just came out of the blue.” She also defended the outlet, saying, “we have never promoted propaganda for anyone."
“We cover stories from all different sides. That’s part of the reason we are so trusted by people around the world."
The White House's accusation came as it criticized media outlets for not taking the virus seriously.
“While the media and Democrats refused to seriously acknowledge this virus in January and February, President Trump took bold action to protect Americans and unleash the full power of the federal government to curb the spread of the virus, expand testing capacities and expedite vaccine development when we had no true idea the level of transmission or asymptomatic spread," White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told Fox News.
NBC, in particular, has faced criticism for the way it covered China's response to the pandemic. NBC News faced a wave of accusations that it was doing the Chinese government's bidding by tweeting on Tuesday that it had not reported coronavirus deaths that day while the U.S. saw more than 1,000 overnight.
"U.S. reports 1,264 coronavirus deaths in over 24 hours. Meanwhile in China, where the pandemic broke out, not a single new coronavirus death was reported," the tweet read.
The controversy came after a tense exchange in which MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pressed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on his criticism of journalists using China's numbers.
"Some in our media can’t contain their glee & delight in reporting that the U.S. has more #CoronaVirus cases than #China," Rubio tweeted last week. "Beyond being grotesque, its bad journalism We have NO IDEA how many cases China really has but without any doubt its [sic] significantly more than why they admit to." The tweet received plenty of backlash but Rubio stood by his statement during his MSNBC interview.
Ruhle seemed incredulous when she asked Rubio about this tweet. “I need to ask you this, because I’m a journalist. We’re not just some personalities. You called out journalism. And I need to understand why on earth you did this," she said.
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Rubio previously tweeted out a series of posts that showed media figures mocking the administration and America's interest in being "Number 1." He also indicated to Ruhle that journalists were threatening U.S. national security by repeating Chinese "propaganda."
NBC previously faced backlash for an article suggesting that China was emerging as a "global leader" during the pandemic. The article, titled "As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader," starts by highlighting Chinese aid to Italy.
Fox News' David Spunt and Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.
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