It was inevitable that due to the parlous state of western mainstream journalism for it to descend into abject jingoism in response to western self-interest being jeopardized by Russia and China. Just as it had descended to these same depths when its attempts to fix its interests in Syria. and before then in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, so it has once more in respect of Ukraine.
Has it traditionally been what journalism was about? No, at least not in most past cases of war. But it has become the default stance of the mainstream legacy news and TV news networks for the last three decades at least. This stance is to unequivocally bolster western interests to the detriment of any and all principles involved, including those of international law and global wellbeing.
Of course there was the hand of western state officials in western journalism’s demise also. There is the scandal over journalist Andrew Gilligan where he inferred the UK government was ‘sexing up WMD claims’ to facilitate the attack on and invasion of Iraq. The attacks made upon Gilligan by the government at that time sought to destroy his reputation. Then there was the smashing of the Snowden laptops in the basement of The Guardian newspaper (by state officials or those sent by them) . This latter was a heavy hint to The Guardian that editors and owners would toe the line… or else. Which “coincidentally” they have done ever since. The Guardian has been one of the most vocally supportive of western state narratives on Ukraine ever since.
Only a few stalwarts such as journalists Daniel Ellsberg, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Robert Parry remained as the western elite circus began to aim its guns toward Russia and China to provide examples of what true journalism was. The latter three of their number are now sadly deceased. The opinionated talking heads on BBC and CNN news broadcasts and online websites are not even pale shadows of these former dedicated true journalists who preceded them. This holds entirely true across the panoply of viewspapers that pretend to be communicating news in the West whereas all they do in reality is distribute accepted western state narratives.
So, after the disasters that were Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, it came to be Russia#s turn for treatment via Ukraine. The script provided by successive Ukrainian regime figures after the Maidan coup of 2014 was duly delivered as “news” to western audienes. Its illegal presidents, Poroshenko, then Zelensky, along with anyone and their dog that had something to do with the Kiev side of things were given the red carpet treatment in the West and whatever they said was treated as holy writ. What has transpired from 2014 to the present day has been the obedient passing along of whatever propaganda the Ukrainian regime wished to pass off as the reality. The stenographers of western media channeled it completely unfiltered to western populations creating an entirely false perception in the process.
What was good for Kiev was seen as good to go, inserted immediately into news articles and TV “news” programming for maximum effect. What was bad for those seeking autonomy in eastern Ukraine or for Moscow was also good to go and inserted alongside the former. All in a nice neat convincing and conditioning parcel of half-truths, omitted facts, obvious propaganda gambits and (for anyone truly in the know) outright lies.
Meanwhile, from 2014 to the present day, Kiev was given the green light by the West to bombard urban areas in eastern Ukraine, killing innocent, Russian-speaking men, women and children with complete impunity. All of course, totally unreported by a western press and media pretending to be completely unaware who maintained a deafening silence upon it. Residential tower blocks (of which there are a great many across Ukraine from Soviet times), hospitals and schools bore the brunt of these incessant attacks. Bodies littered town centres and leafy avenues alike. Editors and commentators in the West sat on their hands. No news of these events was to reach any western population if they could possibly help it.
Then we come to more recent events with the operation Russia has now conducted to remedy the silence that western opinion leaders have sought to enforce for these past long eight years of genocidal attacks by their proxies on the people of eastern Ukraine. And, of course the self-same mentality, still rigidly in force of portraying everything Kiev does as good, and everything Moscow does as bad.
Ukraine, brave, plucky little Ukraine was portrayed as steadily defeating the mighty ogre that is Russia which had descended upon it in an unwarranted, entirely unprovoked attack. All the abandonment of true journalism over the previous eight years in Ukraine and the two decades of bad-mouthing Putin and Russia were about to pay off. Fairy tales on one side and horror stories on the other were order of the day. And hellmend any resignation-happy fool among western media that did otherwise.
Ukraine, poor Ukraine they said… let us see your tears, raise your voices and open your wallets, in this black and white war tat is so wholly good versus evil. Everyone was enjoined and implored to get on board the ‘Hate Russia’ bandwagon or be cancelled, the modern day version of the village communal punishment mechanism, the stocks.
Readers and news watchers in the West heard constantly that Ukraine was achieving victory after victory against evil Russian forces who were perpetrating one vile atrocity after another with Russian generals salivating over killing babies, school kids, doctors and hospital patients (wastefully using some of the most expensive weapons ever devised). And what purpose was there in that, what possible strategic goal would be achieved in doing this? This was not an answer heard from western mass media. The message was simple and potent, ‘Russians are evil’, end of story. All propaganda designed to condition western audiences to the max. Over and over. Ukraine winning, Russia losing, Russia running out of weapons, taking enormous casualties, losing ground, being steadily defeated ushering in victory for noble, self-sacrificing, enormously brave little Ukraine.
But none of this was nor will it be of any avail. Russia will continue to wage its steady war of attrition ignoring all Kiev’s PR stunts, facades and propaganda reflected across western mass media and continue to grind the Ukrainian army and its associated modern day Nazis to dust. The shock of this inevitable eventuality is now beginning to knock all the western fantasists back on their heels. Those of them who have lost their brains completely and have actually been believing their lies will be hardest hit. Those that simply played lie factory game to save their jobs and career prospects will give a cynical sneer and simply get on with the next round of distortions their job demands of them.
In the western world as a whole, the shock and horror that comes with the full recognition that the Kiev regime was defeated will hit very hard. The utter humiliation of that defeat and the knowledge that the entire western elite themselves were defeated as a result will be enormous. The furore will last around a week and be extremely intense. The mud will be slung in all directions. After a week, or perhaps two at most, the great western public will inevitably slip back into its normal routines, switching on their TV screen and taking in, as if nothing at all had just happened, whatever the next batch of conditioning it has to offer them.
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