Xinhua News Agency, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People’s Republic of China. A State Council’s ministry-level institution founded in 1931, Xinhua is the largest media organ in China.
Xinhua is a publisher, as well as a news agency; it publishes in multiple languages and is a channel for the distribution of information related to the Chinese government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its headquarters in Beijing are located close to the central government’s headquarters at Zhongnanhai.
Xinhua tailors its pro-Chinese government message to the nuances of each international audience. The organization has faced criticism for spreading propaganda and disinformation and for criticizing people, groups, or movements critical of the Chinese government and its policies.
Their press freedom ranking is “Total Oppression” which means they publish whatever Dear Leader tells them to under threat of torture, imprisonment, or death. Not news.
The Omari Mosque was originally a 5th century Byzantine church that was built over a more ancient temple. It was converted into a mosque in the 7th century, then a Crusader church in the 11th century, and back to a mosque in the 13th century.
The architectural elements of the Crusader church were still apparent in the modern-day mosque, and an etching of a Jewish menorah on a mosque column, believed to have been originally part of an ancient synagogue, was once documented, and was destroyed in recent decades.
All that history- gone.
Edit: If you want some perspective, this mosque was from the century before the Buddhas that the Taliban destroyed.
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Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda will be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating will be removed.
Suddenly the news is more real because a western source reports on it? Ironically people will think they’re immune to propaganda because they’ve been trained to automatically distrust non-western sources.
Yes it is, it’s attacking the source for being Chinese.
No, it’s attacking the source for being integral to propaganda arm of the CCP. I’d hope to see the same response to state-run media of any non-democratic country. It’s also not intending to discredit the news whatsoever, so it isn’t an ad hominem attack. They’re encouraging you to use more trustworthy sources.
Suddenly the news is more real because a western source reports on it?
No, this news is real regardless. There’s probably a post about it on 4chan; that doesn’t make 4chan a news source, either.
Ironically people will think they’re immune to propaganda because they’ve been trained to automatically distrust non-western sources.
There are countless well-trusted sources outside of the western world. They just don’t require a stamp of approval from their authoritarian government before they can publish.
No, it’s attacking the source for being integral to propaganda arm of the CCP.
Which is still ad hominem: Argument by the reputation of the bearer of the news instead of the integrity of the news.
Sure Xinhua is biased AF when it comes to many things of immediate interest to the CCP… but a mosque in Gaza isn’t really among those things. You could draw some link between China and the US being rivals and China wanting to publicise how the tail that wags the US is being a dipshit but that kind of thing is par for the course for pretty much any media outlet, there’s always bias in what to report on and what not. But that’s more an issue of consumers of whole frontpages, not individual articles.
My two cents is that what OP should’ve done is use a more neutral source of news, and what the critics should’ve done is slam Xinhua but also acknowledge that the article itself actually happens to be fine. There’s plenty of shit to criticise China for you don’t need to make stuff up, only hurts the case.
I could see if it was a deflection and criticized something irrelevant about China or the news agency. But saying you aren’t sure about a story because the source is known to be unreliable is perfectly reasonable. And yes, I trust NPR more than the official state media of any government. I’d say, the Trump administration released a statement saying basically anything and it was repeated by Fox, I’d be wary, so no, I don’t agree with the “western” thing.
THIS IS NOT A NEWS SOURCE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhua_News_Agency
Their press freedom ranking is “Total Oppression” which means they publish whatever Dear Leader tells them to under threat of torture, imprisonment, or death. Not news.
How’s this for a source?: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218384968/mosque-gaza-omari-israel-hamas-war
Or is NPR “Total Oppression”?
NPR is a fine source. The US has press freedom. They’re rated as “High Credibility”. You thought I’d have a problem with that?
Don’t post shit from state-controlled propaganda networks.
Thanks. Op should probably update the source to this one or similar. There’s no reason to link to a bad source if good ones are available.
Looking at their comments here, I don’t think OP is interested in playing by the community rules.
Propaganda is insidious.
All that history- gone.
Edit: If you want some perspective, this mosque was from the century before the Buddhas that the Taliban destroyed.
You are doing incredible work, thank you for taking the time.
Thanks for stopping me from ingesting China’s largest media organ
Suggest reporting post for breaking community rules:
Feel free to point out something inaccurate in the article rather than resorting to ad hominem arguments.
That’s not really what ad hominem means.
Yes it is, it’s attacking the source for being Chinese. The news itself is true: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218384968/mosque-gaza-omari-israel-hamas-war
Suddenly the news is more real because a western source reports on it? Ironically people will think they’re immune to propaganda because they’ve been trained to automatically distrust non-western sources.
No, it’s attacking the source for being integral to propaganda arm of the CCP. I’d hope to see the same response to state-run media of any non-democratic country. It’s also not intending to discredit the news whatsoever, so it isn’t an ad hominem attack. They’re encouraging you to use more trustworthy sources.
No, this news is real regardless. There’s probably a post about it on 4chan; that doesn’t make 4chan a news source, either.
There are countless well-trusted sources outside of the western world. They just don’t require a stamp of approval from their authoritarian government before they can publish.
Which is still ad hominem: Argument by the reputation of the bearer of the news instead of the integrity of the news.
Sure Xinhua is biased AF when it comes to many things of immediate interest to the CCP… but a mosque in Gaza isn’t really among those things. You could draw some link between China and the US being rivals and China wanting to publicise how the tail that wags the US is being a dipshit but that kind of thing is par for the course for pretty much any media outlet, there’s always bias in what to report on and what not. But that’s more an issue of consumers of whole frontpages, not individual articles.
My two cents is that what OP should’ve done is use a more neutral source of news, and what the critics should’ve done is slam Xinhua but also acknowledge that the article itself actually happens to be fine. There’s plenty of shit to criticise China for you don’t need to make stuff up, only hurts the case.
I could see if it was a deflection and criticized something irrelevant about China or the news agency. But saying you aren’t sure about a story because the source is known to be unreliable is perfectly reasonable. And yes, I trust NPR more than the official state media of any government. I’d say, the Trump administration released a statement saying basically anything and it was repeated by Fox, I’d be wary, so no, I don’t agree with the “western” thing.