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"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."
THE ANTI-RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN
May 1, 2014
We are finding that it is impossible to get a clear picture of events in Ukraine from Western mainstream media reports, because they overdramatize events that its reporters seem not to fully understand, obscure important details, and are based on premises that we are inclined to think are false.
Today, for example, the Wall Street Journal ran a story ("Police, Militants Clash in Eastern Ukraine; Putin Tells Kiev to Withdraw Troops," by Philip Shishkin in Donetsk) that contained only one paragraph mentioning in passing what it said was a "call" from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Kiev's withdrawal of military forces from southeastern Ukraine. The paragraph made clear neither what Putin said nor where or to whom he said it. But that did not prevent the Wall Street Journal from featuring it in a scare headline. Readers would have to turn to other sources to learn that in fact Putin's remark was communicated not to the Ukrainian government in Kiev or to the world at large but to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a telephone call that Merkel herself initiated. As for the "clash" featured in the headline, that ill accorded with reporting from Philip Shishkin buried in the 26th and 27th paragraphs: "In fact, much of Donetsk looks like a peaceful, West European city"; the movement of pro-Russian activists "resembles Occupy Wall Street encampments . . . now most residents ignore it. . . . [Donetsk] "is impeccably clean," with "leafy boulevards flanked by elegant architecture" and "restaurants and crowded playgrounds."
In "Putin Demands That Ukraine Pull Its Troops from Southeast," published by the New York Times today, Neal MacFarquhar took a similar tack. Putin's supposed "demand" seems mainly to have been a tit-for-tat response to a request from Germany to release OCSE observers now being held in Slovyansk. But readers of MacFarquhar's story had to reach the twelfth paragraph before being able to learn that what President Putin actually said (according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry commenting on the telephone call) was that the government in Kiev should "not commit criminal mistakes" and should "soberly assess the gravity of the possible consequences of using force against the Ukrainian people." This sounds like good advice to us, not the ultimatum that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times suggested in their headlines.
In fact, it seems to us that it is NATO and the United States that are acting aggressively in the current crisis, moving troops, fighter jets, and warships closer and closer to Russia. These actions are supposedly "to reassure jittery former Soviet republics that worry about Russia’s ambitions," but Russia does not seem to us to have any expansionist ambitions. On the contrary, it is the European Union, NATO, and the United States that have been aggressively expanding into what historically has long been a Russian sphere of influence. Far be it from us to justify Russia's response. But it seems clear that this response is principally defensive, not offensive, in nature, and that it is a contest for markets that is the underlying cause of the ongoing crisis.
UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY
"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."
UFPPC statement: The anti-Russian propaganda campaign
UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY
"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."
THE ANTI-RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN
May 1, 2014
We are finding that it is impossible to get a clear picture of events in Ukraine from Western mainstream media reports, because they overdramatize events that its reporters seem not to fully understand, obscure important details, and are based on premises that we are inclined to think are false.
Today, for example, the Wall Street Journal ran a story ("Police, Militants Clash in Eastern Ukraine; Putin Tells Kiev to Withdraw Troops," by Philip Shishkin in Donetsk) that contained only one paragraph mentioning in passing what it said was a "call" from Russian President Vladimir Putin for Kiev's withdrawal of military forces from southeastern Ukraine. The paragraph made clear neither what Putin said nor where or to whom he said it. But that did not prevent the Wall Street Journal from featuring it in a scare headline. Readers would have to turn to other sources to learn that in fact Putin's remark was communicated not to the Ukrainian government in Kiev or to the world at large but to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a telephone call that Merkel herself initiated. As for the "clash" featured in the headline, that ill accorded with reporting from Philip Shishkin buried in the 26th and 27th paragraphs: "In fact, much of Donetsk looks like a peaceful, West European city"; the movement of pro-Russian activists "resembles Occupy Wall Street encampments . . . now most residents ignore it. . . . [Donetsk] "is impeccably clean," with "leafy boulevards flanked by elegant architecture" and "restaurants and crowded playgrounds."
In "Putin Demands That Ukraine Pull Its Troops from Southeast," published by the New York Times today, Neal MacFarquhar took a similar tack. Putin's supposed "demand" seems mainly to have been a tit-for-tat response to a request from Germany to release OCSE observers now being held in Slovyansk. But readers of MacFarquhar's story had to reach the twelfth paragraph before being able to learn that what President Putin actually said (according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry commenting on the telephone call) was that the government in Kiev should "not commit criminal mistakes" and should "soberly assess the gravity of the possible consequences of using force against the Ukrainian people." This sounds like good advice to us, not the ultimatum that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times suggested in their headlines.
In fact, it seems to us that it is NATO and the United States that are acting aggressively in the current crisis, moving troops, fighter jets, and warships closer and closer to Russia. These actions are supposedly "to reassure jittery former Soviet republics that worry about Russia’s ambitions," but Russia does not seem to us to have any expansionist ambitions. On the contrary, it is the European Union, NATO, and the United States that have been aggressively expanding into what historically has long been a Russian sphere of influence. Far be it from us to justify Russia's response. But it seems clear that this response is principally defensive, not offensive, in nature, and that it is a contest for markets that is the underlying cause of the ongoing crisis.
UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY
"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."