Corporate media is largely ignoring an Axios report detailing Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s contacts with an alleged Chinese spy.
The Monday report noted that Christine Fang, the suspected spy, became close with Swalwell and even participated in his 2014 reelection campaign. Fang, who is also accused of having an affair with at least two U.S. mayors, did not donate money and there is no evidence of illegal contributions.
Fang also reportedly planted an intern in Swalwell’s congressional office, Axios noted. Swalwell was informed of Fang’s suspected ties in 2015 by the FBI via a “defensive briefing,” Axios reported. The Democratic lawmaker then cut ties with Fang and has not been implicated in any wrongdoing.
Despite the intrigue of a story involving top politicians, a Chinese spy and the FBI, media publications are largely ignoring the news, according to a Fox News report.
ABC News, CBS News and NBC News did not report the news on their morning or evening shows for the entirety of Tuesday, according to Fox News. Cable news networks did not fair much better, with MSNBC spending about five minutes of Tuesday on the report during the early hours. Meanwhile, CNN did not do any reporting on-air or on its online website, Fox News reported.
Eric Swalwell’s reported entanglement with Chinese spy ignored by CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT, WaPo after years of peddling the Russian collusion narrativehttps://t.co/eWPxcURx65
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) December 9, 2020
CNN eventually covered the story Wednesday when Swalwell came on to discuss the news with anchor Jim Sciutto.
Sciutto asked if Swalwell had “any concerns” about Fang prior to the briefing, to which the Democrat reiterated that he was not implicated in any wrongdoing. Swalwell then suggested that the leak could somehow involve President Donald Trump, a comment that Sciutto did not push back on.
“I was shocked,” Swalwell said. “Just over six years ago, I was told about this individual and then I offered to help, and I did help and I was thanked by the FBI for my help and that person is no longer in the country and I was a little surprised to read about my cooperation in that story, because the story says that there was never a suspicion of wrongdoing on my part.”
CNN also eventually did a write up of Swalwell’s TV segment and the story Wednesday evening.
The New York Times and The Washington Post also did not report on the story, Fox News noted. This comes despite the fact that many of these same major publications pushed the now-debunked Trump-Russia claims.
Today, Swalwell is calling for an investigation into his leaked China spy story. His view on this leak is a far cry from that of a 2017 Trump-Russia related leak considered to include highly classified intelligence information.
In 2017, Swalwell consistently hyped up a leak about the FBI obtaining Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump’s former policy adviser Carter Page. Swalwell did not condemn this particular leak – rather, he suggested Page could be hiding something.
“The way that Carter Page has behaved from his interviews … is also an indicator of somebody who wants to cover up prior ties,” Swalwell previously told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow regarding that leak. (RELATED: Swalwell Calls For Investigation Of Leaked Chinese Spy Story, But Hyped Classified Leaks About Carter Page)