Misinformation in Your Mailbox: Rightwing Newspaper Tries to Sway Wisconsin

Residents living in the suburban Wisconsin town of Hartland recently found a copy of the rightwing weekly newspaper The Epoch Times in their mailbox. They aren’t alone in this. The paper is making a deliberate effort to reach and sway voters throughout the nation. 

For many, The Epoch Times, which is tied to a Chinese spiritual movement known as Falun Gong, is an unknown paper. Its “sample edition” landing in mailboxes might seem like a benign offering, or perhaps even a mailing error. 

The Epoch Times commitment to pro-Trump coverage has caught the eye of Trump supporters around the country—up to and including conservative elected officials, Trump associates, and the President himself.

But the newspaper’s spam campaign in Wisconsin is only the latest in a string of unsolicited sendings. Reports of The Epoch Times showing up in mailboxes are widespread, it has been documented in such places like Sacramento, Denver, and cities across Canada and the United Kingdom. 

The Epoch Times reads like a traditional newspaper. It is unassuming, professionally designed, and focused on politics and lifestyle coverage. Behind the newspaper’s headlines, however, there is a specific agenda to spread anti-communist, and pro-Trump, messaging.  

As an international and multi-language newspaper published in more than thirty countries, The Epoch Times originated in Atlanta, Georgia and is now based in New York. It serves as an outlet for the Falun Gong religious movement, whose followers have been persecuted in China. The paper regularly criticizes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

Although Falun Gong describes itself as a “spiritual practice” that consists of “gentle exercises and meditation,” the movement has been viewed by the Chinese government as subversive and dangerous since its founding in the early 1990s. 

Following Falun Gong’s anti-communist agenda, The Epoch Times regularly publishes stories attacking the CCP, often involving misinformation and conspiracy theories. 

In its American variety, the paper’s anti-communist and anti-CCP bent manifests in a strong pro-Trump stance; considering him to be the strongest fighter against the CCP. For Falun Gong, which views itself as waging a divine battle against communism, Trump is their destined warrior. 

One sample edition of The Epoch Times, sent to a Canadian neighborhood, questioned whether the CCP created COVID-19 as a biological weapon, arguing that it should be renamed the “CCP Virus.” A front-page story on a separate edition promotes the Trump-fueled “Spygate” conspiracy theory. 

Last year, Facebook banned The Epoch Times from advertising on its platform, after it was found to violate Facebook’s ad policy by obscuring its identity in political ads that promoted Trump and pro-Trump conspiracy theories. Before that, it had been the second-largest spender on pro-Trump ads, behind only the Trump Campaign itself, dropping $1.5 million and putting out more than 11,000 ads. 

After being banned from advertising on Facebook, The Epoch Times made a move to YouTube. The New York Times has reported that it has spent an estimated $1 million on YouTube ads. Its most popular YouTube ad has garnered more than 22 million views and decries the “mainstream media” and a “communist ideology” that has taken root in the United States. 

“Don’t let communists win,” the ad concludes, with an appeal to subscribe to the channel and purchase a subscription to the paper. Further scrolling through its YouTube channel reveals numerous videos praising President Trump and, most recently, claiming that the CCP “loves Biden.” 

The Epoch Times commitment to pro-Trump coverage has caught the eye of Trump supporters around the country—up to and including conservative elected officials, Trump associates, and the President himself. The paper has won the endorsements of media figure and former Trump assistant Sebastian Gorka and Republican Representative Paul Gosar. Both Gorka and Gosar write for The Epoch Times.

Securing its place in the conservative media universe, The Epoch Times was granted an interview with Lara Trump and, most recently, was given the opportunity to ask the President a question in the White House Press Briefing Room.

The same week The Epoch Times reporter asked Trump about Hong Kong, its sample edition landed in mailboxes in Hartland, Wisconsin.

A central strategy of The Epoch Times is to attack the “mainstream media” as dishonest and beholden to communists. This echoes Trump’s frequent claims about “fake news” and might explain the paper’s growth and rising popularity in rightwing circles.

In the sample edition sent to Wisconsin residents, a spread of endorsements and reader testimonials blankets the back page. One reader’s testimonial tells how her mother received a local paper for years, but canceled her subscription and subscribed to The Epoch Times after she noticed her local paper had become “more and more liberal, biased, and untruthful” after Trump’s election.

The Epoch Times did not respond to an email enquiry regarding how decisions about to whom and why it sent this particular sample edition, but in an email to CBS News regarding similar distribution in Canada, publisher Cindy Gu said it targets “specific neighborhoods.” 

But what about these neighborhoods make them specific to targeting? 

In Wisconsin, a critical swing state, it’s likely not a coincidence that issues of The Epoch Times wound up in Waukesha County. It’s not a stretch to say that the outcome of the presidential election in Waukesha—along with the two other conservative counties that surround Milwaukee—may well decide whether or not Trump is re-elected. 

The Epoch Times, in its crusade against communism, understands this deep flaw in the American political system and, like the countless other disinformation campaigns that will bombard us before November 3, is making its bid to exploit that flaw.