Assembly Line of Deceit: The Western Media and the Ukraine Poison Story

[Selatius]

Most westerners are ignorant about Ukrainian society and history, making it difficult for them to evaluate the bitter political struggle in that country.

On Ukrainian websites, the Yushchenko side (identified in the media as "pro-Western") portrays their candidate as a democratic outsider and accuses opponent Viktor Yanukovych of being an anti-democratic, corrupt bureaucrat, and a tool of Russia.

The Yanukovych side (identified in the media as "pro-Russian") portrays Yanukovych as ethnically tolerant and the working man's candidate. They accuse opponent Viktor Yushchenko of being a corrupt banker, and a tool of the US and Germany. They say Yushchenko appeals to anti-Russian, antisemitic bigotry, especially among the political descendents of those who fought for the Nazis in World War II.

The Western media by and large has not informed people about the charge that their favored candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, appeals to bigotry against millions of ethnically Russian Ukrainians and half a million Ukrainian Jews. The Western media strongly backs Yushchenko, portraying him as the candidate of democratic progress vs. political gangsterism linked to Russia. How objective - indeed, how honest - is this media coverage?

Full article found here.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. If Karl Rove were running Yuschenko's campaign, he would've poisoned

his own candidate to destabilize the campaign of Yanukovych.

[Igel]

2. Arrggghhhhh!!!

For months I've been trying to find something that actually discusses the differences between Ya. and Yu. in an intelligent way, instead of reading US politics into Ukrainian politics. To get past the sound bites (Yu. is pro-Western, anti-corruption, pro-democracy; as if Ya. supporters say he's anti-western, pro-corruption, or anti-democracy).

Know of any? I don't feel like reading hundreds of pages of non-English today that I don't need to.