This post may find a bunch of haters for me…..but what the Hell…..I have always spoke my mind and I refuse to change now just to keep the peace.
The MSM has turned an off the cuff comment by Biden into a days story when he said “Putin cannot stay in charge” (paraphrase)….personally I do not think he was calling for a coup just speaking a thought….but the media took it an ran….and ran……
From the start of the Ukraine/Russia conflict I have ranted about the media coverage…..as a Conflict analyst I find it lacking in depth…..
The Reporting On Ukraine
Let me explain.
War is Hell….as someone once observed….it is the ultimate obscenity…..filled with death and destruction and yet the MSM is laser focused on the refugees.
Do not get me wrong this conflict is bringing chaos, death and people fleeing for their lives….it is horrible that people have to uproot their lives and flee for safety….but that is the same with every conflict….there is nothing unique about this one.
For me it appears that the MSM is showing the horror of the refugees to promote more intervention by the West in the Ukraine conflict….for if they show the results of the attacks it could promote a more vocal antiwar movement and a more non-intervention position.
Watch your favorite MSM news….endless refugee stories, usually the same story different people, and the actual footage of the war is lacking….only the successes not the failures.
But is the MSM seriously pro-war?
The dominant media narrative is that the US government (and all Americans) must “stand with Ukraine” in the latter’s resistance to Russian aggression. The identification with Ukraine’s cause is now nearly total, and it is infused with arrogant righteousness. Noticeably missing is any sense, once so powerful in US foreign policy and general discourse, that America’s interests often are — and should be — distinct from the interests and objectives of any foreign country.
The emotionalism and shallowness is most evident with the television coverage of the conflict. American viewers are inundated with images of exploding shells from the invading Russian forces, sights of desperate, tearful refugees (mostly women and children) fleeing the invaders, and shots of other determined Ukrainian civilians arming themselves to defend their country. Television is a visual medium that always tries to evoke emotions among viewers, but that element has become truly over‐the‐top regarding treatment of the Ukraine war. Providing a deluge of images showing traumatized civilian refugees adds little to anyone’s understanding of the roots of the conflict, its underlying issues, or its likely outcome.
Indeed, prominent media outlets have been guilty of circulating transparently crude Ukrainian propaganda. Some of the material they’ve telecast turned out to be fake. A widely circulated image of a Ukrainian girl verbally confronting Russian troops actually was that of a Palestinian girl confronting Israeli troops. 2015’s Miss Ukraine was not taking up arms against the Russian invaders, despite a well‐covered photo op. A closer examination of the image showed that she was brandishing an Airsoft gun. Some images of aerial combat footage of Ukrainian pilots battling Russian aggressors were from video games.
https://www.cato.org/commentary/us-press-again-becomes-conduit-pro-war-propaganda#
“If it bleeds, It leads” Is the mantra of the MSM….journalists love war…..
The overwhelming majority of U.S. journalists have taken a more subdued position on the war, identifying with Ukraine against the aggressor Russians, but stopping just short of cheerleading. Even so, journalists can’t hide the seductive draw of the bloodworks. They can’t help themselves. They love war.
That’s a strong charge, so let’s quickly qualify. Accusing journalists of loving war is a little like accusing windshield wipers of loving rain. War, like rain, is inevitable. Journalists exist to report on bloody conflict just as wiper blades were invented to protect our vision from inclement precipitation. This isn’t to imply that the profession’s love of combat causes war. There were wars, you’ll note, long before there were reporters. All those claims that a war-mongering William Randolph Hearst and his New York Journal promised to “furnish” the Spanish-American War if his photographer would only provide the pictures are pure myth.
War Sells. The news business has learned from experience that when war arrives, news interest spikes. Because it deals with life and death, war finds a pre-sold audience, and as long as combat lasts, the audience sticks around. The weekly audience for the BBC’s English-language website in Russia soared 252 percent during the first week of the war. Combined prime-time ratings for Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN increased by almost 50 percent during the first week of the war. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt gained 8 percent. Even when there’s no new news to view, as I can attest, the war audience leaves the TV on in the background in case something new does happen. During the early days of the Gulf War, the fear of missing out on some new bulletin inspired me to get up every night at 2 a.m. to watch the latest.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/17/why-journalists-love-war-00018137
Then there is this from Consortium News…..
“President Biden’s been clear that U.S. troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine, and if you establish a no-fly zone, certainly in order to enforce that no-fly zone, you’ll have to engage Russian aircraft. And again, that would put us at war with Russia,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month. (The administration plan is to bring down the Russian government through a ground insurgency and economic war, not a direct military one.)
But pressure on the White House from Congress and the press corps is unrelenting to recklessly bring NATO directly into the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hailed as a virtual superhero in Western media, has vacillated between openness to negotiating a peace settlement with Russia and calling for NATO to “close the skies” above Ukraine. To save his country he appears willing to risk endangering the entire world.
Meanwhile, Western corporate media, depending almost exclusively on Ukrainian sources, report that Russia is losing the war, with its military offensive “stalled,” and in frustration has deliberately targeted civilians and flattened cities.
Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs to Stave Off War With Russia
Do not get me wrong….let me clear…..what is happening in Ukraine is deplorable….but any war is deplorable in my book….I think the media should report the war not be a conduit for the defense industry to secure massive profits.
Any thoughts?
Turn The Page!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
I totally agree Biden’s comment was meant entirely for Putin and maybe other dictators.. and it seems Putin at least took it at face value as just Biden’s opinion and has shrugged it off. Now.. I actually would like to think his words were a “faked” gaffe simply to communicate to Putin… with the press and the rest of the world amplifying it by reporting it over and over again. But the way he delivered those words seems strictly Biden emotion coming through. I saw nothing in the statement to even suggest some regime change policy nonsense. Now.. having said that.. I certainly damn well hope our intel agencies, and/or those of our allies, have attempted some overtures with Russian command officers to verify incentives for a coup using those alleged mitigation landlines between military opponents or other assets. It doesn’t mean “old school” CIA independent involvement as much as it is a “taking the temperature” and then passing that info up the chain to the policy makers.
I prefer to keep reminding myself.. Putin is NO different than Hitler in trying to justify the lead up to WW2 and the Allies being too afraid of him that he would start another devastating world war. Our ONLY fear is that Putin could be nuts enough to launch ICBM’s.. forcing everyone else to launch theirs. Otherwise we’d be helping Ukraine more directly. The world is being held under duress from acting against him. I could care less what world leaders call Putin. We are way past pussy-footing with the guy verbally under some premise hope that he will “negotiate” to stop. The crime has been committed. He can pull out of Ukraine and go back home.. but he still did the crime and is a world threat to repeating it again somewhere else. Someone needs to pay for that and that is Putin. Of course we temper that with the idea that he’s unpredictable and could launch nukes.. but that fear-threat will still exists in the world even if he negotiates his way out of Ukraine. Nothing changes.
We should keep feeding help to Ukraine and as their momentum picks up they should consider re-claiming Crimea… and grab Donbas. Lincoln removed Meade after Meade won at Gettysburg because he did not go chase down the retreating Lee and end the war. The Russian military has shown itself to be an inept paper tiger in the field. While sadly, Russian missiles have been striking civilian targets the strategic value is that the military in the field is less impacted and can muster to conduct an effective ground war. Churchill during WW2 said that the Luftwaffe changing their strike targets to the terror bombing of civilians rather than military targets.. airfields, radar installations, airplane factories, etc., saved the nation as it allowed the military to re-build it’s nearly finished effectiveness.
Just do the math. Some 3 million are said to be Ukrainian refugees entering other countries. That’s mostly women and children. Let’s assume 50% of that number left one male family member/spouse back in Ukraine to fight under that age conscription law… that leaves at least 1.5 million men stayed back to fight. There’s not even 10% that amount of invading Russian military. The Ukraine has/had a population of 47 million… and those of fighting age, even if 25%, is ten million. There should be no reason by attrition alone that Ukraine can’t kick out the Russians AND grab all the other Russian-occupied areas… if the allies keep assisting with weaponry and humanitarian aid.
I see Zelensky is opening up to territory for peace…..but that is the media and do not trust their sources anymore. chuq
Thank you for sharing this. The Spanish American War in the late 1800’s was helped by a newspaper chain making outlandish claims in order to goose their sales…the news media perpetuates lies and “normalizes” illegal, immoral behavior, all for the sake of ratings…and I work in the business!
“If it bleeds it leads”……sad mantra for the media chuq
Well frankly, I myself see Zelensky as a Super Hero, he is defeating Putin, Putin is making all of Hitler’s and some of Bush’s.
What I suspect is that Putin’s Advisors are corrupt.
Well anyway, the war is not going to last much longer anyway, Russia is on the verge of collapse of its food distribution supply.
So basically, the thing about a Palestinian video being portrayed as Ukrainian is hilarious. How often do people in the West accuse Middle Easterners of misleading propaganda?
Zelensky by the way is now going up against the Holocaust Industry, stating as a Jews that the Ukrainians were never Nazi Sympathizers as he himself as a Holocaust Survivor knows. I stand with both Palestine and Ukraine. Real Enforcement of Human Rights Now.
This war will soon be over soon with no American Involvement, the US media just likes selling America as unstoppable like the Russian Media likes portraying Putin as the greatest man since Jesus.
Russia is already having trouble feeding its troops, they are surrendering to the Ukrainian Forces because they are starving.
I meant to write “Mistakes” after Bush’s?
No problem I knew what you meant…..chuq
I think Biden is playing this well….my problem is finding emergency funds for Ukraine but they cannot seem to find them to feed the people in this country…..that is typical for our politics…..everything for war nothing for Main Street. chuq
The MSM loves war because it makes the industry feel important for reporting it.
At least the BBC has some reporters on the front lines now, with actual combat footage shown over the weekend. I saw it reported that Zelensky is prepared to forego NATO membership and declare Ukraine neutral. It was Zelenky speaking, translated by an interpreter. Trouble is, Putin wants offical Ukrainian recognition of the Donbass and Crimea as part of Russia in the deal, and that is not going to happen.
Best wishes, Pete.
I read where Zelensky is willing to talk about territory…..Biden does not want him to do it…..who will win that debate? chuq