How The Western Press Is Getting It Terribly Wrong In Ukraine

[MNBrewer]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/03/04/5-important-facts-that-the-western-press-is-getting-terribly-wrong-in-ukraine/

When the pundits talk about Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine, they usually mean troops and tanks, but his greatest weapons are ,in fact, his propaganda machine and the gullible western media.

So far, he has been winning stunning victories without firing a shot. Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin cares deeply what the western public thinks and has an army of PR professionals and lobbyists to wage informational warfare, along with a network of sites including “Russia Today” and a variety of “strategy” blogs.

Amazingly, the western press in its desire to adopt what NYU Journalism professor Jay Rosen calls the view from nowhere, has been repeating many of the false assertions that Putin has promoted. Here’s a quick guide to the most egregious errors:

Myth 1: The Interim Ukrainian Government Is Shaky, Illegitimate And Run By Neo Nazis

More at link

[dipsydoodle]

1. Best bet is to only believe sources with reporters on the spot

and ignore all others including self opinionated blogs.

The USA's media may be gullible but not the UK's.

[malaise]

2. I'm actually enjoying propaganda from somewhere else

I watch Western propaganda way too much.

[dipsydoodle]

5. It ok for us

We easily recognise both the BBC and Sky's reporters as actually being there live on TV.

I'm not anti RT anyway - just another news source which is if nothing else is closer to events in this case so gets news earlier. Very little of their stuff is spun anymore than the Guardian for example - just the facts.

I'm figured out way back what one of the main issues concerning Crimea is but find find it interesting that as yet nobody here has yet picked up on it - that's what comes of reading /watching comics and cartoons instead of simply researching a subject.

[malaise]

8. I love the Guardian

One of the best sources on the planet

[EmilyAnne]

4. I've been reading al jazeera almost exclusively.

Russia Today really should not be trusted, but it is an interesting perspective in that it is a pretty good summary of what mainstream, Russian language media is saying.

[EmilyAnne]

3. And by extension, it is very easy to understand the average Russian's opinions on Ukraine.

If we can be taken in by Russian propaganda, imagine what Russians are being exposed to.
In general, at this point Russians believe that their next door neighbor has been completely taken over by Nazis.
So they're understandably terrified and think we're crazy for giving any sort of support to the opposition.

It reminds me so much of the Soviet astonishment when we employed Nazi rocket scientists such as von Braun when, in Russia, they'd had been gulaged. Or worse. Except, of course, von Braun really was a Nazi.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Russians are as capable at accessing western media links as you are

and I don't regard Russians as being stupid enough not to do so.

[EmilyAnne]

13. Capable of reading English language media links like I do?

I'm not sure exactly what sort of links you are referring to.
It is well documented that Russia frequently blocks internet content, that independent media in Russia is pretty much nonexistent and that certain media groups were gutted and reinvented under the Kremlin.
This movement really picked up steam around the mid 2000s.

As an aside, I had a very good friend in Russia who reported primarily on skinhead violence against minorities and immigrants.
He was completely shut down. Not a single article nor interview of his has been published since 2009.
He was the leader of the African Union in Saint Petersburg.

Access to foreign sources in Russia is not so simple.
I would never suggest that Russians are stupid for not accessing "western media links."

[MNBrewer]

14. I think there is some opposition to Russia's moves in Crimea within Russia.

Of course, many of us here opposed the US's moves in Iraq, for all the good it did.

[rdharma]

6. Easy way for interim govt to prove myth #1 false........

"Myth 1: The Interim Ukrainian Government Is Shaky, Illegitimate And Run By Neo Nazis"

Well the interim govt. could disprove that by making a public statement denouncing neo-Nazis and extremist RW nationalists.

Seems reasonable ....... why won't they do it?

[dipsydoodle]

9. Other then the fact the new deputy prime minister is one of them

which may be why they don't do so.

How the far-right took top posts in Ukraine's power vacuum.

The man facing down Putin's aggression as secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council is Andriy Parubiy. He oversees national security for the nation having previously served as security commandant during the anti-government protests in Kiev.

Parubiy was the founder of the Social National Party of Ukraine, a fascist party styled on Hitler's Nazis, with membership restricted to ethnic Ukrainians.

The Social National Party would go on to become Svoboda, the far-right nationalist party whose leader Oleh Tyahnybok was one of the three most high profile leaders of the Euromaidan protests - negotiating directly with the Yanukovych regime.

Overseeing the armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector - a group of hardline nationalist streetfighters, who previously boasted they were ready for armed struggle to free Ukraine.

http://www.channel4.com/news/svoboda-ministers-ukraine-new-government-far-right

btw - Channel 4 is UK : not Russian.

[rdharma]

10. Oops!

[MNBrewer]

15. Why should they disprove what isn't true?

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/01/ukraine-haze-propaganda/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/03/who-s-really-behind-ukraine-s-synagogue-attacks.html

[rdharma]

18. It's not "disproving anything"..... it's just making a public announcement.

Got a problem with that? If so.....why?!!!

[idendoit]

11. How ironic. Forbes complaining about Russian propaganda.

And then presuming to tell us what "The Western Press" has to say. And who the hell is Greg Satell?

[MNBrewer]

16. He's doing no such thing, and who the hell are you?

[BillZBubb]

19. He's someone not pushing Forbes' neo-con propaganda

[MNBrewer]

20. blah, blah blah

If you think the US instigated a neo-Nazi putsch in Ukraine, you might want to take it over to Creative Speculation.

[idendoit]

21. I'm the guy calling out the biggest capitalist propaganda organ there is.

[MNBrewer]

22. That's close to ad hominem.

deal with the publisher instead of the substance....

[idendoit]

24. Substance? What substance?

The claim that the contributor Greg Satell (who is he again?) knows everything about what 'The Western Press' has written about current events in the Crimea. Not only that he claims to know what is going on in the darkest recesses of Putin's mind. This from a guy who's previous contribution included '4 Principle Marketing Strategies of the Digital Age'. A powerhouse of foreign correspondence.

[MNBrewer]

25. so, again, avoiding dealing with anything written

purely an attack on the author. You obviously have nothing behind your critique.

[idendoit]

26. What; do you need me to match a descriptive of the article's content?

Okay, the writing doesn't rise to the lowest level of a weekly shopper rag. Just another blogger on Forbes payroll.

[idendoit]

27. I don't respond to propaganda.

And that's what it is, because it's an op-ed piece and not reporting of any kind.

[rurallib]

12. bet it makes him feel good to hear the Republicans

yammering about what a man he is. Jesus

[reformist2]

23. Read between the lines: Pro-war propaganda is a flop, neocons getting desperate.