[Washington Free Beacon] At first glance, Las Vegas Public Radio (LVPR) looks like any other local FM radio station. It has local community sponsors, vaguely right-wing talk show hosts, and a website begging for a makeover. But there's a disclaimer on the bottom of that website noting that, contrary to the name, the station is not an NPR affiliate.
That disclaimer makes no mention of the fact that LVPR, the self-proclaimed "People's Voice of Las Vegas," is registered to lobby for Huawei Technologies, a Chinese company widely considered a national security threat to the United States.
Funded in part by Nevada taxpayers, according to its founder, LVPR has also developed close ties with Chinese officials and, under the guise of a local American radio station, it has become a voice for a Chinese technology giant that the Trump administration and other national security experts have identified as a threat to the global communications network. Federal disclosures show that the station is registered to lobby for Huawei and, in that capacity, has scheduled programming to push back against mounting concerns that the company could serve as a conduit for Chinese espionage if it builds the 5G network in the United States.
"We'll tell the American people that Huawei is being f—ed in America by politicians," LVPR founder and president Gregory LaPorta told the Washington Free Beacon. "They are no different from Qualcomm and Google ... [Huawei] wants a place in the world like anyone else."
LaPorta blamed the station's rocky finances on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a government-backed entity that offers grants to public broadcasters. LaPorta said the CPB's refusal to offer financial support for his station has forced him to seek revenue elsewhere, including China.
"This is why we're going out of the country. Our own f—ing country has let us down," LaPorta said. "They don't want to support us? F— them."
"We're not going to be a fake news agency," he said.
He dismissed concerns about China's routine suppression of the freedom of the press, and expressed no qualms working with the Chinese government, given what he saw as the corrupt nature of the American government.
"The United States has probably more sins than the Chinese," he said. "America, we're the most corrupt nation on Earth, probably, at this point."
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