US nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee recently found himself once again in the spotlight. On June 2 the US Justice Department, Energy Department and five mainstream media publications reached an agreement with Wen Ho Lee and will pay US$1.645 million in compensation for their violation of Lee's personal privacy.

"The New York Times," "The Washington Post", "Los Angeles Times", ABC and the Associated Press will each have to pay US$750 thousand. However, these media outlets are unhappy about making the payment. They claim they have only agreed to pay because they don't want their reporter jailed for protecting the source of the original story. It appears that the US mainstream media are not willing to learn from the incident.

Seven years ago, the so-called "Wen Ho Lee Espionage Case" created a US media storm. Wen Ho Lee was accused of stealing US nuclear intelligence while he was working at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory and passing on that information to China. He was held in detention for nine months while he was being investigated. The investigators found that Wen Ho Lee had handled computer data inappropriately, but nothing to suggest he had engaged in espionage. While the case was still under investigation, the US Department of Energy and the Ministry of Justice disclosed the situation to the media. Lee became a media scapegoat; his privacy and civil rights were violated and his reputation was destroyed.

This case is a further example of the American government's clever use and manipulation of the media. According to both law and basic principle, the government departments involved should not have leaked details of the story to the media. They took full advantage of the media, using them to incite fear and spread the so-called "China Threat Theory".

The case undermines and exposes the hypocrisy of the supposedly "independent", "objective" and "fair" mainstream US media. Indeed, in domestic issues, the US media do play a certain role in over-seeing and supervising the government. In international issues, however, some US media frequently abandon their journalistic "principles". Whenever the US government takes aim at a hostile country or its leaders, the US media will rise in swarms and denounce it with tongue and pen. It swiftly castigates any US opposition and public opinion is molded accordingly.

In recent years, the American media have been parroting anything the Pentagon has said about the "China Threat Theory" - the "military threat", the "economic threat" and the "technological threat". Attacking China has become routine for certain US politicians and media publications. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently made a departure from his usual "China Threat Theory" rhetoric at an annual Asian security conference in Singapore. This rare and significant omission came as a surprise and the national media latched on to the story. When a reporter asked Rumsfeld about it, he stressed that this did not mean that his perception of China and its policies had changed. In fact, the reason Rumsfeld chose not to speak about this topic is that the "China Threat Theory" has a very small market in South-east Asia. China has a policy of friendship and peaceful co-existence with most of the other nations in its region. Accordingly, Rumsfeld would be without an audience if he chose to ruminate on the subject among this group. It is hoped that Rumsfeld's decision will be an example to the US media in the future and that they will deal with Chinese issues more delicately.

Media publications that deliberately manipulate facts are disregarding their professional and ethical code. In case of Wen Ho Lee, the US media not only lost money but damaged their credibility. Perhaps now is the time for some introspection.

By People's Daily Online