Steve Klett was so glad to have landed a job as a reporter at an up-and-coming newspaper in New York that he stuck with it even after his managers made him watch a disturbing video about the torture of a religious group in China.

Another reporter at the publication, The Epoch Times, found it odd that when she joined in 2022, her supervisor directed her to sit at her desk and read two 300-page books about the evils of communism.

But one of the strangest things about the workplace, former employees said, was its apparent obsession with a touring dance group called Shen Yun.

When Shen Yun was performing in town, employees were regularly given free tickets. Reporters were sent to cover the show and often huddled afterward in hotel rooms near the venue, working all night to publish stories. One former reporter recalled colleagues taking quick naps on the floor.

Alongside its regular news coverage, The Epoch Times has published more than 17,000 articles about Shen Yun since 2009 — most of them full of glowing testimonials from audience members, with headlines describing the show as “heavenly,” “incredibly touching,” “flawless” and “the most disciplined performance of any kind.”

The fawning coverage was not a product of quirky editorial judgment or an unusual commitment to chronicling the arts. Rather, it was part of a deliberate strategy to promote Shen Yun — a huge moneymaker for the Falun Gong religious movement — while relentlessly attacking its critics, records and interviews show.