The fake news debate has been given a new twist in China. The Shanghai Daily is reporting on bogus journos who apparently threaten to expose corruption unless paid to stay silent:

In less than 100 days, from early August to November 9, an anti-fake-reporter campaign in an otherwise little known city in coal-rich Shanxi Province had uncovered over 80 fake reporters, 44 of them handed over for prosecution, according to a report from the Shanxi Youth Daily on November 27…

Meng Huaihu, former Zhejiang bureau chief for China Commercial Times, allegedly extorted 350,000 yuan from Zhejiang Petroleum Co to withhold an investigative report on a motorist’s complaint about fuel quality.

I guess I must have missed the rash of investigations exposing the horrors of the Chinese mining industry etc. etc. Hard to know whether this is a real phenomenon or another campaign targeting journalists, as the writer of the piece notes despondently:

It’s commendable for the Luliang government to crack down on fake journalists, but shouldn’t it also address the very problems these reporters try to profit from?