Not anti-US, but speak for betrayed Americans: The Grayzone founder
Max Blumenthal, founder of The Grayzone Photo: Global Times
In an exclusive interview with the Global Times, Max Blumenthal, founder of The Grayzone, said his US-based news outlet is not anti-US or pro-China as some people claimed. It “speaks for the people in the West who are opposed to war and who are skeptical of the narratives that were being fed.”
It’s an independent website that puts a lot of effort into understanding the propaganda and stories that are floating around, Blumenthal said, adding that when they hear a story repeatedly that is leading people toward more hostility against another country, that's when their alarms ring and they begin to investigate.
The Grayzone recently published a story busting the conspiracy theory of COVID-19 escaping from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying it is another episode of“the Trump administration’s Iraqi WMD.”
Apart from digging into stories behind the conspiracy theories, the Grayzone also released many reports related to Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in recent months. For example, it released a report in March that stated “forced labor” stories hyped by some Western and US media and US-based nongovernmental organizations are orchestrated by the “US government, NATO, arms industry to drive Cold War PR blitz.”
In response to some allegations that said the news outlet is anti-US or pro-China, Blumenthal said the Greyzone does not speak for China any more than it speaks for the US. “But we speak for people in the West who are opposed to war, and who are skeptical of the narratives that were being fed.”
“We're an independent website. We put a lot of effort into understanding the propaganda and stories that we hear. And, when we hear a story again and again and again, that is leading us to become more hostile towards another country, that's when our alarm bells go off, and we start to investigate.”
Blumenthal said as a resident of Washington, DC, a political hotspot, he has seen that many of his neighbors agree with his views.
“My neighbors are African-American and have been mostly left out by society. They understand that a country that is spending billions and trillions of dollars on an empire abroad is unable to bring them anything at home. And our readers are mostly American… I think the most American thing to do is to expose an empire that is not giving back to the people,” he said.
“We can see it so clearly in the time of coronavirus when so many people are being betrayed by this government, including American military personnel, like these sailors on Theodore Roosevelt, who have been simply betrayed. We care about them as well. That's really what our interest is in.”
For publishing the stories, Blumenthal said, his publication faces fierce criticism and insulting remarks.
“We face a lot of pressure for it. We faced fake lawsuits. I've been arrested and jailed because of the fake allegation made against me by the Venezuelan opposition here in Washington. Our writers are constantly insulted on social media,” he noted.
“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.”
“We're simply there to expose the lie of the day. Whenever the public is being lied to and dragged into greater hostility with other nations, they don't understand; we're there to help them unpack the lies,” he said.
