Far-right news outlet makes quiet inroads with Latinos

A far-right news outlet known for spreading misinformation has quietly expanded its Spanish-speaking audience over the last several years — and said it plans to expand even further.

Epoch Media Group — whose properties include The Epoch Times and the TV network NTD — has circulated baseless claims of election fraud, suggested that George Soros controls the Democratic party and echoed the conspiracy theory that the FBI spied on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. 

Certainly not everything that Epoch publishes is false or misleading. Some articles highlight alarming allegations of ballot fraud that received scant coverage from mainstream national news organizations. Others simply cover politics with a partisan slant or have nothing to do with politics at all.

The organization declined multiple requests for an interview and did not respond to a detailed list of questions. But in a statement, the Epoch Times wrote that it is “an award-winning media organization that does not publish misinformation.” It said that “in an effort to defame The Epoch Times you appear to have cherry-picked negative statements and to have approached this story with extreme prejudice.” 

The news organization has ties to the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, though it says it is independent. Its English-language misinformation has been well documented, but Epoch’s gains among Spanish speakers, where it publishes many of the same false or misleading narratives, have gone largely unnoticed.

Since 2019, Epoch has quadrupled the number of its Spanish-language accounts across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram. On YouTube — the platform that Latinos in the U.S. use more than any other — Spanish-language channels belonging to The Epoch Times and NTD have nearly doubled their following since 2021 and increased viewership by 50%, according to statistics from the platforms and the social media analytics firm Social Blade. In December of last year, their YouTube channels received 172 million views for the month.

Epoch’s concerted outreach to Spanish speakers across a wide swath of social media means that its Spanish-language accounts reach some 8.3 million followers. The New York Times offers Spanish-language accounts on far fewer platforms — only Facebook and X — where it reaches just 2.38 million followers.

Now, a Spanish-language edition of the Epoch Times may be “coming soon,” according to an Epoch Times article late last year. 

Already, the paper’s online Spanish edition has “200,000 visitors every month, but we’re going to grow this a lot,” The Epoch Times quoted its general manager for Southern California Siyamak Khorrami as saying.

Epoch’s leaders declined to answer questions about their plans for Spanish language growth, saying through a reporter that “they are not ready to speak with the press at this point regarding the developing expansion plan.” It is not clear if the expansion would mean a Spanish-language print paper, more Spanish content online or something else. 

The January 6 Shaman, a climate change denier

At least in print, Epoch publishes few Spanish originals and instead tends to translate English versions. On television, though, Epoch operates a handful of popular channels that produce original content in Spanish, in addition to overdubbed English shows. 

One of its most popular Spanish-language TV channels, available to stream, is Al Descubierto, or In the Open. About a year ago, it showed footage of the January. 6, 2021 insurrection in which the so-called “QAnon Shaman” — one of the riot’s most prominent demonstrators whose real name is Jacob Chansley — appears to be docile while police officers escort him through the Capitol. The footage was originally aired by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. 

“Now imagine for a moment that you are Mr. Jacob Chansley,” Epoch’s host says in Spanish. “You were recently sentenced to 41 months in prison, which is almost four years locked up. And during your trial, you were not given access to this exculpatory evidence. If that were you, what would you have done?”

But the claim that Chansley didn’t have access to the evidence is false: All but 10 seconds of supposedly new footage was duplicative of police body camera footage that Chansley and his lawyers already had access to. And, when Chansley asked to withdraw his guilty plea in light of the footage, the trial’s judge tossed the request and wrote that the video was “decidedly not exculpatory.” 

The footage aired by Al Descubierto also did not show Chansley storming the Capitol with a spear-tipped flagpole while bare-chested and wearing face paint and horns, illegally entering the Senate chamber, then writing a menacing message to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Epoch declined to respond to questions about this episode or other specific points in this article, but maintained that it does not publish misinformation and that CALO News' reporting was not fair. The show’s host also did not respond to requests for comment. 

As with many Epoch posts, almost none of the episode’s YouTube comments questioned its factual inaccuracies. “Thank you very much for being what a journalist should be,” one comment says in Spanish. “God bless you for revealing the truth,” reads another.

Epoch’s misinformation in Spanish does not seem to target Latinos in particular. Instead, said Jaime Longoria, a researcher at the Media Democracy Fund who monitors Spanish-language disinformation, “They’re covering a lot of the stuff that develops in English-language far-right spaces and right-wing spaces. And they’re basically just making it available to Spanish speakers.” 

Another Epoch story parroted a Georgia election official who claimed she witnessed a “pristine” box of absentee ballots that were missing a crease down the middle — which they should’ve had if folded inside an envelope — and which appeared to be marked by a computer. But investigators found no irregularities in the ballots the official cited.

Epoch’s false or misleading content is not always so obvious. One recent story translated from an English original alleges that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports made up data from “ghost” weather stations that don’t exist, so when NOAA says global temperatures are on the rise, readers should be skeptical.

The report leans heavily on the expertise of a man named John Shewchuk, which the story cites as a “certified consultant meteorologist.” 

Shewchuk is a member of the CO2 Coalition, a conservative nonprofit that publishes misleading posts claiming mainstream scientists are wrong about global warming and which has said carbon emissions are good for the planet. 

Shewchuk also runs a blog called Climate Craze, which promises to “guide you through the pitfalls of the climate crazed media.” The blog’s homepage reads: “CO2 does NOT control global temperatures.” 

In one YouTube video titled “Dinosaurs preferred global warming,” Shewchuck argues that because prehistoric reptiles thrived during a period of high CO2 levels and hot temperatures, humans would benefit from the same environment. 

NOAA, for its part, said it does provide estimated temperatures for shuttered weather stations “as a service to users,” but that it doesn’t use that data when it analyzes temperature trends.

In an email, Shewchuk stood by his claims, and questioned why NOAA uses tax dollars to generate the estimated temperatures.

“Regarding ‘climate denier’ accusations,” he said, “they don’t bother me, because that just means those folks don’t have the data to back up their claims. It’s not about who I am or who I associate with — it’s only about the data.”

Epoch tends “to quote a lot of what might seem like credible sources, but actually aren’t,” said Jacobo Licona, a research consultant at the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas. “It might appear that they’re bringing on people who are experts on whatever topics, but might be more fringe or extreme actors in those spaces.”

The Epoch Times looks like a mainstream news organization. Like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, its printed edition is a broadsheet, and its homepage features a sober look, with restrained headlines and a standard news writing style. A recent homepage featured a straightforward story on the results of primary elections. 

But, Licona said, that’s part of Epoch’s danger: The publication can seem “regular” at first glance. “They’ve become more subtle,” he said. “It’s cherry-picked content that might be true.”

How Epoch Grew

The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 as a small newspaper affiliated with Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement that grew out of qigong, the practice of slow, meditative body movements meant to promote spiritual and physical health. Beijing has labeled Falun Gong an “evil cult” and subjected the movement to a brutal crackdown. Epoch, in turn, rails against the Chinese Communist Party.

Falun Gong members say that the practice’s exercises and teachings can be life-changing, and that they experience dramatic physical and mental health benefits. Many adherents feel “they have found a deeply rewarding spiritual path,” says Falun Gong’s website.

But some former followers also say Falun Gong amounts to a cult, one that centers around a god-like reverence of the movement’s leader, Li Hongzhi. 

In a 1999 interview, Li said he believes that extraterrestrials introduced science and technology to mankind in an attempt to control and eventually replace humans. “Everyone thinks that scientists invent on their own when in fact their inspiration is manipulated by the aliens,” Li said. When asked if he himself is a human, he told the interviewer that “you can think of me” as one. 

Li also contended that people who “attain the Tao” can unlock supernatural powers such as the ability to float, citing as an example the illusionist David Copperfield, who famously seems to fly onstage. 

In its statement, The Epoch Times wrote that it is “an independent organization.” Falun Gong did not respond to a list of questions including about Li and his beliefs.

For much of the two decades after its founding, The Epoch Times remained relatively obscure. A story from 2010, for example, found that it was selling only a few copies a week at New York newsstands.

But by late 2017, the paper found an ally in Donald Trump, who shared its anti-China perspective and whose politics it could tap into to expand its influence machine. 

Epoch is now a leading purveyor of far-right news that continues to skewer the CCP between pro-Trump segments and interviews with Ben Carson. On Instagram, the accounts that The Epoch Times follows skew decidedly right-wing. Across all platforms, Epoch publishes content in 23 different languages, and claims to be the fourth-largest U.S. newspaper by circulation.

The Falun Gong operates a network of outfits that push its anti-China ideology, including the much-advertised Shen Yun dance troupe and Gan Jing World, a YouTube copycat, which hosts the videos on Epoch’s website.

Gan Jing World could become increasingly valuable for Epoch if mainstream digital platforms crack down on mis- and disinformation. Indeed, Epoch appears to have pivoted from using YouTube as a primary medium for its TV content since January. Its channels still run limited videos on YouTube, but host all their content on Epoch’s website.

“Hey, since this is an exclusive episode here on Epoch TV and we don’t have to worry about YouTube’s censorship — well, let’s dive right in,” one of Epoch’s most popular hosts said when introducing a program. (The host did not reply to requests for comment.)

But Li — the leader of the Falun Gong whose followers call him “master” — referred to The Epoch Times and NTD as “our media” during a 2010 Falun Gong conference. John Tang, the founder and CEO of The Epoch Times, has said that he is a Falun Gong practitioner. 

In its statement, the Epoch Times said that focusing on the religious beliefs of its staff members is “clear discrimination.”

In nonprofit filings, NTD’s Dallas division says its purpose is to “sponsor Shen Yun Performing Arts’ shows,” and on almost any given day, the Epoch Times’s homepage features at least two prominent references to Shen Yun. (Li has referred to Shen Yun as an initiative of the Falun Gong.)

On a recent visit to Epoch’s office in El Monte one of the few pieces of furniture in the otherwise sparse lobby was a table with Falun Gong information pamphlets. 

“What is Falun Dafa?” one pamphlet reads, referring to an alternate name for Falun Gong. Another flyer walks readers through basic Falun Gong body movements, including the “Falun Cosmic Orbit” and “Reinforcing Supernatural Power” stances. 

A young NTD staffer handed a CALÓ News reporter a Shen Yun pamphlet, noting that the show is a must-watch. The staffer would not allow CALÓ News to view the upstairs newsroom. On a second visit, a receptionist would not allow CALÓ News into the lobby.

Because of its ties to Falun Gong, Epoch operates under a fundamentally different set of goals than mainstream media outlets, said Jaime Longoria, a researcher at the Media Democracy Fund who monitors Spanish-language disinformation.

“Profit isn’t the reason why they exist,” he said. “They exist to espouse politics.” 

But Longoria added that the brutal economics of local news created an opening for Epoch to exploit. “There is no replacement for this huge disappearance that we saw of ethnic and community media for the past 10 years,” he said. 

This article was written in partnership with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism