What is it worth to CNN to keep its Beijing bureau? How about losing its credibility on stories relating to China?
In the latest iteration of CNN covering for China is the revelation that the Washington Post has been hacked as covered (sort of) Sean by Lyngaas of CNN on Sunday in "Hackers take aim at Washington Post journalists in an apparent ‘targeted’ cyberattack."
Hackers have tried to break into the email accounts of a select number of Washington Post journalists, according to an internal Washington Post memo obtained by CNN.
The Post discovered the “possible targeted” hack of its email system last Thursday, prompting the newspaper to reset login credentials for all its employees on Friday, Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray said in a memo Sunday to employees.
“Although our investigation is ongoing, we believe the incident affected a limited number of Post journalists accounts, and we have contacted those whose accounts have been impacted,” Murray said.
“We do not believe this unauthorized intrusion impacted any additional Post systems or has had any impact for our customers,” he added.
Who, oh WHO, could the culprits possibly be? You won't find out from CNN although they do leave the barest of hints at the conclusion of the story:
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the hack.
The Journal itself was the subject of a multi-year hacking campaign by suspected Chinese hackers, which the paper discovered in 2022. That espionage effort targeted journalists reporting on China-related issues.
Hmmm... So the Wall Street Journal was hacked by the Chinese, yet CNN can't draw any conclusions about the culprits in the case of the That's what fear of losing the Beijing Bureau can do. One news outlet that does not have a Beijing bureau, the New York Post, was more forthright in their Sunday story by Ariel Zilber on this same topic starting with the headline, "Washington Post journalists who cover China had their email accounts hacked: report."
The story itself left little doubt as to the probable source of the hacking:
Several journalists at The Washington Post who cover China had their email accounts compromised in a suspected cyberattack that may have been carried out by a foreign government, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The breach, which affected Microsoft email accounts, potentially gave the intruders access to the contents of reporters’ work emails, including messages sent and received, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Those targeted include members of the Post’s national security and economic policy teams who cover China.
So it appears that maintenance of Beijing bureau means a news organization must remain very circumspect when treading into areas that could be critical of China and the CCP that controls that nation... as well as indirectly controlling foreign news coverage of that regime.
Nice Beijing bureau you have there. It would be a shame if you lost it.
