Tim Shorrock spreads disinformation about biological warfare in Korea. That makes him a disinformant.
If you’re unfamiliar with self-described Marxist and journalist Tim Shorrock, consider yourself fortunate. But if you’re on Twitter and you’re interested in Korea, you’ve probably run across his tweets. You might even have been blocked by him. And while the world is wide enough for all sorts of kooky viewpoints (as Mao said, “Let a hundred flowers bloom,” as he pulled the cord and started his lawnmower), Shorrock was one of the first “journalists” to whom Moon Jae-in gave an interview after his inauguration as South Korea’s President. That should trouble us as much as it did when Donald Trump went on the Alex Jones Show, because Shorrock and Jones are both conspiracy theorists, and a president’s imprimatur invites conspiracy theories into the mainstream of a country’s political debate.
Claims of U.S. Biological Warfare during the Korean War: Via the Wilson Center’s Kathryn Weathersby, here’s a detailed examination of how the Chinese and Soviet governments fabricated the claims, obtained “confessions” from American prisoners of war (extracted under torture, and subsequently recanted) to buttress them, and used sympathetic front organizations such as the International Association of Democratic Lawyers to spread that disinformation—and how more recent evidence from Soviet and Chinese historical sources eventually proved that the claims were fabricated. To this day, conspiracy theorists continue to propagate that fabrication, and Tim Shorrock continues to retweet articles that perpetuate it, such as this one.
Those claims have caused panic and protest.
Shorrock attaches this document as evidence for them:
The document looks like a page from an authentic U.S. Forces Korea document, but when you actually read it, it’s about a biosurveillance exercise. The VOP, Chun, and Shorrock would have you believe “biosurveillance” is about testing biological weapons, but it isn’t. It’s about detecting, diagnosing, containing, and responding to the use of biological agents by someone else against you, and the civilian population, in order to save lives.
We’ve known for decades that Pyongyang was manufacturing biological agents—most infamously, anthrax. That’s why I endured seven anthrax shots during my tour in Korea, all seven of which made me queasy for at least half a day. (The series was actually six shots, but I got a seventh as a special prize for misplacing my yellow shot record one day.) Here’s a paper from the National Institutes of Health explaining biosurveillance. You’ll find other reputable sources online that confirm the same. Shorrock has “unearthed” evidence that U.S. forces in Korea are training for biodefense. That isn’t some sinister plot; it’s something we should all hope the armed forces are preparing for, especially in light of current events. Shorrock mischaracterizes and hypes it to disinform, to stir anger, and probably to inflate his own importance.
In times when the Kremlin, the Chinese Communist Party, and the United Front Department are eager to spread disinformation through allies on both the left and the right, tweeter beware. Consider the damage you’re doing to the pursuit of objective truth, and to your own reputation. Shorrock isn’t a journalist; he’s a propagandist and conspiracy theorist who (like David Irving, and unlike Jones) occasionally unearths a useful fact, but whose viewpoints, arguments, and conclusions are either tendentious, ahistorical, reckless, or flat-out mendacious. He is to America what Donald Trump is to Joe Scarborough—a sad, angry man who will spread any claim, no matter how spurious, to portray the object of his rage in an unfavorable light.
Also, if you ask Shorrock factual questions about his claims or sources, he’ll block you. Which is one thing Shorrock can do that Trump can’t.