Uncover “TheCoverage”
Updates as at 11:11pm, 15 Oct 2020. Tan Sri Vincent Lee Fook Long who is named in this article has already clarified his involvement in The Coverage on his Facebook account. Please scroll to the end for the clarification.
A local fake news portal The Coverage produced another piece of disinformation today. The storyteller behind the portal republished an article in 2016 in a total different context to confuse readers. Many do not know they are consuming FAKE NEWS from an MCA-related website. They unknowingly believed whatever fed into them like the adults in Japanese animation film “Spirited Away”.
Today, many online users received and forwarded a link or screenshot of a “news” published on thecoverage.my. The piece of news basically recycled DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang’s statement in 2016 on Citizen Declaration linking it falsely to recent political development. However, we all know that the context in 2016 is different from 2020. To give an analogy, and I will use an actual event, many had been fooled by recycled news on the first wave of Covid-19 when the second and third wave hit us. The preparators used news of the first wave as if they were linked to the second or third wave.
Why did The Coverage act irresponsibly to fool its readers? My answer is simple, it is a propagandist fake news portal owned by an MCA-related businessman.
Nowadays, we are bombarded with incalculable amount of information every day. Compare this to three or four decades ago, when we get one or two major news a week. We know who produced our news on the newspapers or TV channel back then. However, we are now living in a new age where everyone can run a personal media entity, own a website, write “news”, produce news content etc. Yet, not many of us will check who produces the news which we consumed.
On thecoverage.my, the website master did not put up any name of its team members. It was just an empty introduction on the “About us” page. Unlike many other propagandist news websites owned by UMNO, it did not even put up the name of the company which owns the site. Why would any ordinary media owner be so secretive about their business if they are doing regular media work?
We can, however, find out who owns the website domain. The domain is owned by a company called “Ace Event 168 Sdn Bhd (1125159-K)”. A simple search returned “Shen Yee Aun” as the administrative contact of the company with his email stated as coveragebureau@gmail.com.
Is Shen Yee Aun the sole owner of this media outlet? Obviously he is not. It seems he is merely the operator of this news portal although he owns 60% of the company shares.
Through a company search, there are three shareholders in Ace Event 168 Sdn Bhd, namely Shen Yee Aun, Ace Consultancy 168 Sdn Bhd, and IdeaRiverRun Sdn Bhd (IRR). The second shareholder is actually another vechicle of Shen Yee Aun.
So, who is Shen Yee Aun? Again, information about this person can easily be searched online. In short, he is a disgruntled member who jumped to MCA in 2013 and had been bashing DAP ever since.
But the question remains, why does this person want to run a news portal just to discredit DAP by fabricating a lot of fake news, including the disinformation about Lim Guan Eng’s son in the past?
We do not know how rich Shen Yee Aun is. But he was able to employ some social media strategists we found on LinkedIn. There are at least two persons, claiming to be social media strategists and listed thecoverage.my as their employer.
On the other hand, IRR which owns the 40% shares in the portal may actually be the real boss. It is a private equity fund solely owned by businessman, Tan Sri Vincent Lee Fook Long. Former MCA President Chua Soi Lek praised Tan Sri Vincent Lee as a party man in his memoir as the latter had donated RM4.5 million to MCA. Tan Sri Vincent Lee is also former Star Publication (M) Bhd executive deputy chairman.
I think it is very clear who are the people behind thecoverage.my now.
As consumers, we always check the expiry date and the place of production for the food products we consume. We want to purchase safe and healthy food to keep our body strong. Yet, how many of us check the manufacturer of the food for thoughts in the virtual world? Many just happily consume expired food for thoughts and rotten propagandist junk news, because probably junk food tastes better.
Friends, always check the background of every news portal so that you know what you are consuming for your brain.
Clarification from Tan Sri Vincent Lee Fook Long
Dear YB Wong , your article on Medium. Com
Refer to TheCoverage.
Yes you are right that I was a shareholder.
However , finding out that Shen intentionally writes rubbish I have disassociated myself from TheCoverage four years ago.
In fact numerous police reports were made against him and the portal by me. We also reported to ROC for breach of trust as well as not furnishing yearly accounts to me.
For the record I am not a member of MCA , I was a supporter and donated lots of money to the party to help various charitable organizations under MCA.
However , I have not benefited from any biz dealings from MCA.
In fact , I was the early supporter of PH and wrote numerous articles condemning Najib and gang until Was called up by Bukit Aman.
If you need proof of police reports about Shen and TheCoverage I would be happy to pass to you. Please do make good on your story. Also , my other portals like Cillisos . My have always been fair to All political parties. Thank you.
Tan sri vincent lee.
