2019 may be remembered as the year of the protest, as demonstrations are engulfing the world. From the Yellow Vests in France to demonstrations in Lebanon, Gaza, Chile, Ecuador and Haiti, sustained movements all over the planet have taken to the street demanding change. Yet US corporate media have been disproportionately interested in only one: the Hong Kong protests.
As FAIR argued previously (FAIR.org, 10/26/19), this disparity in coverage can largely be explained by understanding who is protesting and what they are protesting against. The unrest in Hong Kong flared up in March in response to a proposed extradition treaty between the island city, the Chinese central government and Taiwan, which many residents feared would be used by Beijing authorities to arrest and persecute opponents of the Chinese state. Thus, the target of Hong Kong’s protesting is an official enemy of the US, hence the extent and favorability of the coverage.
FAIR conducted a study of New York Times and CNN coverage of four important protest movements around the world: Hong Kong, Ecuador, Haiti and Chile. Those outlets were chosen for their influence and their reputation as the most important, agenda-setting outlets in the print and television media. Full documentation, including links to all articles in the sample, can be found here. All relevant results to “country+protests” on those outlets’ websites were counted, except purely rehosted content, since each protest began. This was March 15 for Hong Kong, October 3 for Ecuador, October 14 for Chile and July 7, 2018, for Haiti. The end date for the study was November 22, 2019.
In total, there have been 737 stories on the Hong Kong protests, 12 on Ecuador, 28 on Haiti and 36 on Chile. As the graph illustrates, both the Times and CNN had similar ratios of coverage.
This enormous disparity cannot be explained by the other protests’ size or significance, nor the severity of the repression meted out by security services. After barely a week’s worth of turmoil, the death toll in Ecuador was eight, according to that government’s own Human Rights Defender, while the UN confirms that 42 Haitians have been killed in the last two months alone. And in Chile, where right-wing President Sebastian Piñera literally declared war on the population, sending tanks through the streets, 26 have died and over 26,000 have been arrested. In contrast, no one has died at the hands of the Hong Kong security forces, although one protester died after falling from a building, and a 70-year-old man was killed by a brick thrown by protesters, both deaths occurring in November after months of demonstrations.
Of course, the protests in Chile and Ecuador started well after Hong Kong, so it would be unwise to compare the totals directly. But even taking that into account, the disparity is still enormous; during the hottest moments of the Ecuador crisis (October 3–14), the New York Times ran six stories covering it, CNN three. This is in contrast to 33 and 38 articles on Hong Kong over the same time period. And since the beginning of the Chilean protests (October 14), while the Times has covered the event 14 times and CNN 22, the two news organizations ran 59 and 92 articles on Hong Kong, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Haitian protests have been raging for twice as long as Hong Kong, yet the coverage of the far more deadly repression on the Caribbean island has been minute in comparison, with Hong Kong receiving more than 50 times the total attention Haiti has.
However, the quantitative difference, while great, actually undersells the disparity of the coverage in a number of important ways. Firstly, many Ecuador and Chile stories were not focused on events in those countries, but were merely “protests around the world” roundup articles, with barely a sentence or two about events (e.g., New York Times, 10/23/19; CNN, 11/3/19). In fact, CNN has run a total of only two stories (10/8/19, 10/13/19) focused mainly on the events in Ecuador. In contrast, the great majority of the Hong Kong stories were dedicated to events on the island city-state, and articles that merely mentioned the protests, such as CNN’s report (11/13/19) about the decline in the Asian stock market, were not included in the count towards the Hong Kong total. Meanwhile, almost half of CNN’s Haiti coverage (e.g., 2/16/19, 2/18/19) centered on US citizens affected in some way by the upheaval.
Demonstrators in Hong Kong are almost universally referred to as “pro-democracy protesters” (e.g. CNN, 8/30/19, 10/15/19; New York Times, 10/15/19, 11/21/19), whereas the protests rocking Chile were commonly denigrated as “riots” (e.g., CNN, 10/19/19) or “looting and arson” (New York Times, 10/19/19). Likewise, the violence of the Ecuadorian protestors was constantly emphasized (e.g., New York Times, 10/9/19; CNN, 10/8/19). The “wrath of labor and transport unions,” CNN (10/9/19) told us, was “unleashed” as “violent protests have raged” in Quito, and protestors held military members hostage.
This sort of language is rarely used with regards to the Hong Kong protesters, even when it is arguably more applicable. In addition to widespread property damage and the aforementioned bricking of a retiree, protestors recently doused another elderly man in flammable liquid and set fire to him on camera. He spent more than ten days in a coma.
The New York Times (11/17/19) used passive voice to describe protesters shooting an arrow through an officer’s leg: “A police officer was hit in his leg with an arrow” as “activists resisted” the police onslaught to “suppress them,” it told its readers. Times reporters also describe seeing the rebels producing “hundreds or thousands of bombs” they were going to use. Despite this, the paper continued to describe the militants as “pro-democracy activists.”
Perhaps most worryingly, CNN (11/17/19) shared an image of a homemade gas canister-sized bomb, not unlike the one used by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the Boston Marathon, except much larger. CNN also noted it received confirmation that protesters had already used these bombs against police. If, for instance, Black Lives Matter or Antifa had killed passers-by, shot police or created Tsarnaev-style bombs, would they be called “pro-democracy demonstrators,” as both CNN (11/22/19) and the New York Times (11/22/19) have continued to do for those in Hong Kong?
Corporate media has glossed over many of the more unseemly details of the Hong Kong protests to continue the simple narrative of lauding the “democracy-minded people of Hong Kong,” fighting for freedom against the repressive “Communist authority” of Beijing, as the New York Times editorial board (6/10/19) puts it.
The quantity of Hong Kong articles is inversely proportional to the diversity of opinion. The reality of the situation is much more nuanced, but this nuance is entirely lacking in the hundreds of articles sampled. Corporate media sing the same song on Hong Kong, presenting the situation in a lockstep single-mindedness that would impress any totalitarian propaganda system.
Research assistance: Matthew Kimball
Featured image: New York Times photo (11/17/19) of Hong Kong protesters with Molotov cocktail.
Rael Nidess, M.D.
One wonders how many ‘Alan MacLeods’ there are to churn out as many high quality essays as appear here & at MPN… there’s got to be more than one!
Tony
Thank you for pointing out the bias in mainstream news reporting, something I observed from the HongKong riots and reaffirmed by you. To state the obvious, we need accurate news reporting to ensure democracy. I was naive to trust what I read and hear in the mainstream news media, not anymore. They are all “fake news”. Sad, isn’t it. You don’t know who you can trust to get the truth.
KC
Interesting that you wouldn’t have discussed Venezuela as well. In fact, the same exact outlets have gone beyond merely exaggerating the types and nature of protests (framing all public marches as anti-Maduro, when in fact many of them were pro-) and in fact helped to stage a fake coup, hoping that real-time coverage by CNN and the NYT would lead the people of the U.S. as well as Venezuela to assume that the Maduro government had been deposed with that random Guaydo portrayed as having the support of the military (the main photo/video shoot took place OUTSIDE of an air base in VZ but was framed to look as though he was inside and in control). Same thing as China, Venezuela is a country that didn’t let U.S. and multinational Western energy and finance interests have free rein so that administration had to be painted as evil socialists and illegitimate.
Another angle that the media clearly intends to cover up is the role of U.S. “NGOs” and the CIA or other clandestine agencies in the Hong Kong protests, just as they did when similar happened during the Maidan in the Ukraine – essentially a color revolution where the United States gov’t and media were willing to back anyone who stood against the previous president who was viewed as a proxy for Vladimir Putin no matter how inaccurate that was – up to and including murderous fascists and neo Nazis.
Good piece. Thanks.
Dan
fake news
Barack Obama
What a Communist butt kisser!!! The corrupt and brutal Communist thugs are responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of innocent Chinese. They have a million people in concentration camps even today. The Commie brown-noser here thinks they’re getting to much bad press!!!
George W. Bush
I see the State Department or George Soros funded NGO contingent has arrived.
In case you forgot how to read, nobody ever said that anyone – OTHER THAN THE “PROTESTORS” in Hong Kong – are getting too much press.
Test
Nope, there’s a trillion Uyghurs in concentration camps now, it’s so huge to the point there’s somehow still no evidence of it other than “alleged” bullshit made up by the usual suspects.
Master
Nope, there’s a quadrillion Latin American immigrants, children, and toddlers locked up in concentration camps along the U.S. border with Mexico right now, being tortured, drugged, and murdered. It is ginormous to the point there’s somehow still cover-ups by the U.S. state-controlled media of most of the atrocities being committed by the U.S. government, other than the “alleged” bullshit made up by the usual suspects (i.e. five-eyes spying network controlled by the U.S.) Everything else around the world, combined, pales in comparison to the the American atrocities.
John Gibson
That’s amazing, Barack! The corporate media reporting on the unrest in Hong Kong reported the death of the old man hit with the brick, but why are they covering up the killing of tens of millions of innocent Chinese?
dee moon
America support Hong Kong! The Uighur’s are Being Attacked!! around the world not just at home!!! Winnie the Pooh Makes Hitler look like an amateur compared to the Communist Party!! Time to stand Up! America!!! https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-uighur-hacking
Mr Chan
Time for your medicine son, time to cancel your subscription to The Times
Tony
Of course, no one mentions the 200,000+ innocent civilians killed by US forces… or the fact US troops fired tear gas at peaceful protesters earlier this week in Baghdad, while condemning the Hong Kong Police for firing tear gas at violent protesters that are attacking people, businesses and public property.
JC
Thank you for finding and sharing the facts. The trolls in the comment section here are hilarious and totally predictable. Let the truth come through. The world needs it.
John Jones
There’s bias sure but the motivation is pretty obvious. Of the four places listed, only Hong Kong has any significance in America’s well being. The city has a special trade status in the US, China-America trade depends on it. The other three nations could completely cease to exist and it wouldn’t affect the US, but if the same happened to Hong Kong the US economy could slump.
joe Emersberger
Boy that’s silly “John”.
All the places listed could disappear without having much impact on US economy
HK accounts for ~ 3% of China’s GDP. Volume of US trade with HK is compared to that with Chile & Ecuador combined.
Also – there was plenty of coverage of anti government protests in Haiti in 2003/4 because the US supported them and US troops actually kidnapped the elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, that year even though Haiti is – of all the places listed – the least important to the US economically.
Your argument also doesn’t make sense on its own terms. If HK were crucial to Us economy the US – and therefore to the western media that apes its priorities – there would be tremendous reluctance to disrupt the status quo (ie support the protests).
R Fair
Because China needs to rely on Hong Kong to achieve its global influence, it is important for the United States to destroy Hong Kong
JW
Thanks for the great work!
Victor
Thanks for the great research and speaking out
Partrick Cheung
As a Hong Kong citizen, we are all suffered from fake news protecting all bad behaviors from the rioters. I wish more people will know the truth how rioters stop the voice from other people.
Jacob Artz
Hello, I appreciate the way you have written this article. I wanted to ask if you had tools to scrape all those articles and search for text within them, do you? I am currently developing a tool to do just that, and wonder if you might be interested in testing it / using it for free.
Jack
Just another feeble attempt by the US to try and contain the rise of China. It’s pathetic US is going through a mid life crisis, fighting with everyone and evolving into a self centered bigot….sad
ct
An really professional analysis rarely seen today!
RB
Great article. Ever since a professor of mine introduced me to Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent,” I’ve been much more critical of even the better quality outlets such as the NYT and the WAPO. However, in fairness, the NYT, while it hasn’t run nearly as many stories on Chile as it has on Hong Kong, it has documented the human rights abuses. I’m surprised this article hasn’t mentioned all the stories on eye injuries in Chile; the NYT has run several stories documenting the hundreds of blindings.
However, I’ll also admit, I didn’t even know of the situation in Haiti! And I avidly follow the NYT, WAPO, NPR, as well as some independent media such as the Intercept. Damn.
Innocent Citizen of HK
Being a Hong Kong citizen, I am thankful that there are some unbias report out there that are actually reporting the truth. Let’s put aside the bias towards the China Communist thing as I am kind of in that camp but what is happening in Hong Kong have nothing to do with that as China did not inetrfere. In actual fact, the so call pro-democracy protester have created an environment that is similar to China 10 years ago where citizen are deprive of their basic human rights, common law is thrown out and the responsibility rest on yourself to prove innocent, if you are given the chance to, before you are being brutally attacked; only single opinion is allowed, etc… and there are lots more. In sum, the reports I saw from CNN, New York Times, Fox News, etc are biased and some are not even what has happened. The agenda ? well that is beyond me…
In this world where internet and social media is so popular, risk of falling into a false reality of the world of social media is high. There are people in Hong Kong that even buy into stories that are totally untrue and living in their world of false reality. The social media have stripped all the metadata and any photos and video that have been altered cannot be verify at all unless you manage to obtain the original. Trust me, I did that and was really surprised how the truth is being altered. Even worst, the internet allows you to choose your information (I would not call these news as some are, to put in simply, stories created by anyone who have access to the internet) and that will serve to reinforce the false reality, and that reality will become even more prominent with the bais towards cognitive support for pre-emptive altitude.
Anyway, being a victim of the so-call pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, I would plea to anyone to do your own “fact check” before forming an opinion as there are just too many bias/untrue story out there.
Lee Suk -Han
I am so glad that Fair.Org finally unveiled the serious bias of the US media. Since June 2019 we had witnessed unceasing indiscriminate vandalism by the protesters (more like rioters) on public transport, infrastructures as well as private properties, and assaults on the police. Doxxing and revenge on people who disagree with them is prevalent. The destructions by the protesters must stop now. We Hong Kong people want our beloved city back!
A Hong Kong commoner
Hear, hear.
You have my greatest respect and appreciation for your professionalism demonstrated through this article. This made me recall an Australian reporter’s experience when he was physically in Hong Kong a few months ago, where he then pointed out that he was horrified at how “disinformation” is being “weaponized” in Hong Kong to perpetrate various media’s own agendas.
You have my full support in reporting the truth and exposing the wrongdoings of other media. This is such a stark contrast to the “alternative facts” others represent e.g. Ted Cruz claiming that he “did not see any violence” when he visited Hong Kong in late 2019.
L Ting
Thank you for your objective, fair and detailed analysis and report, Mr Macleod.
Mr MacLeod,
You are almost about the only journalist in the US that still have independent mind and integrity, when most others have succumbed to monetary or political pressure from the rich and powerful 1% at the top of the US society.
My compliments and please keep up the excellent and valuable research and work
mikey
You guys get the Panda Huggers of the Year award. Good work.
Jim
Though, I don’t necessarily disagree with the premise, I see this portrayal as inherently biased in itself. There are more obvious explanations. FIrst, Hong Kong is one of the financial centers of the world and as such affects the world economy to a much greater degree than the other places. This leads to the second most obvious reason, importance again to significant world events in terms of $$. Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous city of the more totalitarian superpower China – it is of great interest to everyone what they will do. Restraint or intervention those events will more drastically affect international relations (as well as economics). No matter what happens in Bolivia, Haiti, or Ecuador this cannot be said. I’m not happy about the aforementioned, in fact on a personal level I wish greater coverage of the other events. But the news is not really news about events, its news that is important to wealthy people around the globe and their investments. It’s algorithm-based and directed. Most reporters and the ceo’s themselves are less aware of their digital overlords. Alas and alack, the digital overlords are completely unaware as well, for the near future at least. People get the news and the content they click on most, human journalists conform consciously and unconsciously, to get those clicks and those advertising $$. People do not care about developing nations. If they did we would worry about the 300,000 that will potentially die each day due to food insecurity from the covid-19 lockdown rather than the far fewer numbers that will die in developed nations from the disease. Again, the obvious.