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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow The Western Press Is Getting It Terribly Wrong In Ukraine
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 Putins 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. Heres 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
(42,239 posts)and ignore all others including self opinionated blogs.
The USA's media may be gullible but not the UK's.
malaise
(269,186 posts)I watch Western propaganda way too much.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)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
(269,186 posts)One of the best sources on the planet
EmilyAnne
(2,769 posts)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
(2,769 posts)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
(42,239 posts)and I don't regard Russians as being stupid enough not to do so.
EmilyAnne
(2,769 posts)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
(8,462 posts)Of course, many of us here opposed the US's moves in Iraq, for all the good it did.
rdharma
(6,057 posts)"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
(42,239 posts)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.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)rdharma
(6,057 posts)Got a problem with that? If so.....why?!!!
idendoit
(505 posts)And then presuming to tell us what "The Western Press" has to say. And who the hell is Greg Satell?
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)If you think the US instigated a neo-Nazi putsch in Ukraine, you might want to take it over to Creative Speculation.
idendoit
(505 posts)MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)deal with the publisher instead of the substance....
idendoit
(505 posts)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
(8,462 posts)purely an attack on the author. You obviously have nothing behind your critique.
idendoit
(505 posts)Okay, the writing doesn't rise to the lowest level of a weekly shopper rag. Just another blogger on Forbes payroll.
idendoit
(505 posts)And that's what it is, because it's an op-ed piece and not reporting of any kind.
rurallib
(62,451 posts)yammering about what a man he is. Jesus
Response to MNBrewer (Original post)
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