In this NewsBusters article, Jorge Bonilla argues that major establishment media outlets downplayed or omitted the story of a Southern California Democratic mayor charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government.
- Bonilla says major broadcast evening newscasts ignored the case involving a local California mayor accused of working on behalf of Chinese Communist government officials.
- The article criticizes NBC News Now for briefly covering the story without naming the mayor or identifying her party affiliation.
- Bonilla argues that if the accused mayor had been Republican, legacy outlets would likely have emphasized the name and partisan affiliation far more aggressively.
- The piece says multiple major outlets, including ABC, NBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times, left out the mayor’s Democratic affiliation in their written reports.
- The allegations involve the mayor and an adviser allegedly operating a website aimed at the local Chinese American community while receiving and following directives from Chinese government officials.
- The Department of Justice indictment cited by NewsBusters says Chinese officials provided pro-Beijing material, including claims denying genocide or forced labor in Xinjiang.
- Bonilla highlights messages allegedly showing the mayor posting China-friendly propaganda quickly after receiving it and later responding deferentially to a Chinese official.
- The article frames the case as part of a broader concern about Chinese influence operations at the local government level in the United States.
- Bonilla concludes that the establishment press is too selectively focused on anti-Trump narratives to properly investigate foreign influence stories when they involve Democrats.
Read the full story: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/05/11/omission-nets-ignore-dem-mayor-charged-being-agent-china-those
