美独立新闻网站创始人揭露西方反华派“阴谋论”炮制套路

近日，美国独立新闻网站“灰色地带”的创始人之一麦克斯·布鲁门塔尔接受了《环球时报》的采访，针对此前美国媒体鼓吹“病毒是从武汉病毒所泄漏的”等阴谋论的报道，介绍美国政府是如何通过与媒体联合炒作，传递虚假信息，炮制各类关于中国的不实报道，阻止公众获取真相。

4月22日，“灰色地带”发表了一篇题为《特朗普散播的新冠病毒起源于中国实验室的阴谋论如何被炮制》的文章，披露了特朗普政府、美国右翼媒体以及接受反华势力资助的非政府组织和智库等团体共同推动反华议程、煽动对华敌意的全过程。

Max Blumenthal, an award-winning journalist and founder of the Grayzone, told Global Times that the conspiracy theory of COVID-19 escaping from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, is the Trump administration's Iraqi WMD (weapon of mass destruction) and the unpacking of misinformation is blocking the American public from learning the truth about the epidemic and China's efforts to contain it.

The Grayzone published a story days ago busting the Chinese lab coronavirus conspiracy theory and revealed that the Trump administration, right-wing media outlets as well as NGOs and think tanks are together pushing the anti-China agenda. The website is a U.S.-based independent news outlet, and aside from the COVID-19 coverage, it also released many reports related to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in recent months.

文章指出，“新冠病毒源自武汉实验室“的阴谋论已成为美国政府的“伊拉克大规模杀伤性武器”。该说法最早在《华盛顿邮报》上出现，尽管当时没有任何证据能够支撑这一观点，但这一论调仍然得到了民主党和共和党人的广泛传播。通过调查，作者发现，是美国政府通过“放假料”给媒体，散播关于中国的负面消息，最后由政客出面呼吁对华采取强硬政策，试图通过渲染民众仇恨情绪，推动反华舆论战达到新高度。

布鲁门塔尔直言，美国国务院是真正的幕后推手。福克斯新闻通过美国驻华大使馆获得“消息”，随即对外刊发多篇带有明显政治倾向、声称“武汉实验室存在安全问题”的新闻报道，并借美国政客推波助澜，邀请鹰派参议员汤姆·科顿参加节目，提出“中国应对每一个死亡病例负责”、“中国必须受到惩罚”等可笑说辞，实现抹黑中国的效果。

The Wuhan lab conspiracy first appeared in the Washington Post on April 14 in the opinion section. Though the columnist himself admits there is no evidence to prove that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan lab, the piece gets shared widely by Democrats and Republicans.

Then Fox News on the following day quoted U.S. sources as saying officially that they believe the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And the TV network invited Tom Cotton, one of the most extreme pro-war senators, who said "China is responsible for every death," "China has to be punished," and "China has to be sanctioned."

The Grayzone reported that the State Department was behind this, leaking cables from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to reporters and distorting them, claiming that there were safety issues at the lab.

"You can see very clearly that the State Department leaks information to the media. The media spins the story and presents it to the public. Then, politicians issue calls for new policies of militarism and extreme hostility to China," Blumenthal told Global Times.

实际上，这类不实报道一经发布，就遭到了多国科学家的驳斥。关于新冠肺炎病毒的真正来源，一个由美国、英国和澳大利亚研究专家组成的团队在3月17日发表于《自然》杂志上的文章中已经作出回答：“我们认为，任何关于新冠病毒出自实验室的猜测都是不合理的……我们的分析已经清楚地表明，新冠病毒既非实验室产物，也不是能够人为操纵的病毒。”

来自8个国家的27名公共卫生科学家也于2月在著名医学杂志《柳叶刀》上签署一封公开信，以支持中国科学家、公共卫生人员和医学专家抗击新冠病毒所付出的努力，该研究强烈谴责了相关阴谋论。他们在信中明确提到，新冠病毒与许多其他新兴病原体一样，源于自然界。

However, regarding the real source of COVID-19, a team of American, British, and Australian researchers concluded in a March 17 article published in the scientific journal Nature, that "we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible…. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

A group of 27 public health scientists from eight countries signed an open letter in February in support of the scientists, public health professionals and medical professionals of China combating COVID-19 that strongly condemned conspiracy theories. They claimed that scientists from multiple countries have concluded that "this coronavirus originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens.”

布鲁门塔尔认为，美国政府借助媒体之手，将反华言论通过“匿名美国官员”和各种不可靠的消息来源进行包装并散播丑化中国的相关言论，把原本对中国的冷战转变为热战，以此转移美国民众对政府应对疫情不力的指责。

“这一切都表明了我们正处于一场信息战中，事实变得无关紧要。美国人不会去探寻真相。我们的目标就是让美国人民能够获取平衡的信息，中断战争、制裁和敌对行动。”

"We are unfortunately in a kind of information war where the truth doesn't matter. The American people are not going to be exposed to the truth," Blumenthal said. 

He believes that by planting fake news about China and COVID-19 through anonymous U.S. officials and dodgy document dumps, the White House is shifting blame, hoping that an escalated conflict abroad will paper over its failures at home.

这种做法背后更深层次的原因让人担忧。

布鲁门塔尔介绍，最近美国媒体对中国的报道越来越消极，加上越来越多的美国民众突然开始对中国的人权问题，尤其发生在新疆的暴恐事件表示出极大的兴趣。与去年相比，美国民众认可“中国威胁论”的比重显著上升，已超过70%，这说明美国政府的反华宣传已经发挥了作用。

他认为，美国政界极力推动反华运动的宣传策略和新冷战思维将会给美国留下很大隐患，因为“防控疫情的唯一途径是合作”，同处于这样一个相互依存的全球化环境中，美国无法独善其身。

However, a deeper reason behind the practice is more revealing.

The founder of The Grayzone explained to Global Times that the reason why there has been increasingly negative coverage of China recently and more Americans all of a sudden have started to show interest in China's human rights, especially the conflict in Xinjiang, is that the U.S. government is campaigning to turn up the new Cold War and to advance Donald Trump's national security doctrine introduced in 2018, which declared that the U.S. was moving from the war on terror into great power competition with China and Russia.

He told Global Times that compared to last year, Americans view China in incredibly negative terms. And Americans now are being "dragged into greater hostility with other nations."

"I think 70 percent of Americans see China as the greatest threat to the U.S. Last year, it was lower than 50 percent. Propaganda works," Blumenthal said. 

"I understand what's happening in my country and how dangerous this propaganda is and how dangerous a new Cold War will be to the U.S. "The only way out of the epidemic is through cooperation, because, unfortunately, we live in a globalized world where we're all interdependent. And, I don't think the U.S. actually has the ability to completely cut itself from a powerful country like China. It's just impossible."

随着批评中国在美国变得“政治正确”，此次发表的文章让布鲁门塔尔和“灰色地带”的其他作者面临侮辱、谩骂和严厉批评，承受了巨大的压力。但他们始终坚持“当公众被谎言欺骗并导致对他国产生更强的敌对情绪，我们要戳穿谎言。”

“灰色地带”成立于2015年，作为一家美国的独立新闻媒体，从揭露叙利亚代理人战争开始，它通过对西方不实报道展开调查追踪，旨在揭露美国外交政策的错误及其对国内的影响，并致力于为反战人士和质疑西方叙事方式的人发声。

The Grayzone was founded in 2015 and discusses sensitive topics regarding U.S. foreign policy, which Blumenthal believes is leading the U.S. to war. As criticizing China has become politically correct in the U.S., Blumenthal and other writers of the website are facing increasing insults and heavy criticism.

"But one thing that people cannot do to us is accuse us of factual inaccuracies or debate us. We've extended the opportunity for some of our critics to debate us and they usually say no."

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