DISTORTING RUSSIA

We reproduce hereunder an extract of an article written by Stephen F Cohen Professor Emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and Princeton, that was published in The Nation (USA) on March 3, 2014 under the title “Distorting Russia” How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine.

“The degradation of mainstream American press coverage of Russia, has been under way for many years. If the recent tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles in leading newspapers and magazines—particularly about the Sochi Olympics, Ukraine and, unfailingly, President Vladimir Putin—is an indication, this media malpractice is now pervasive and the new norm.

There are notable exceptions, but a general pattern has developed. Even in the venerable New York Times and Washington Post, news reports, editorials and commentaries no longer adhere rigorously to traditional journalistic standards, often failing to provide essential facts and context; to make a clear distinction between reporting and analysis; to require at least two different political or “expert” views on major developments; or to publish opposing opinions on their op-ed pages. As a result, American media on Russia today are less objective, less balanced, more conformist and scarcely less ideological than when they covered Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

The history of this degradation is also clear. Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts. Anyone relying on mainstream American media will not find there any of their origins or influences in Yeltsin’s Russia or in provocative US policies since the 1990s—only in the “autocrat” Putin who, however authoritarian, in reality lacks such power. Nor is he credited with stabilizing a disintegrating nuclear-armed country, assisting US security pursuits from Afghanistan and Syria to Iran or even with granting amnesty, in December, to more than 1,000 jailed prisoners, including mothers of young children.

Not surprisingly, in January The Wall Street Journal featured the widely discredited former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, branding Putin’s government as one of “deceit, violence and cynicism,” with the Kremlin a “nerve center of the troubles that bedevil the West.” But wanton Putin-bashing is also the dominant narrative in centrist, liberal and progressive media, from the Post, Times and The New Republic to CNN, MSNBC and HBO.

Not long ago, committed readers could count on The New York Review of Books for factually trustworthy alternative perspectives on important historical and contemporary subjects. But when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, the NYRB has succumbed to the general media mania.  Omissions of facts, by journalists or scholars, are no less an untruth than misstatements of fact.

The American media coverage of Ukraine has been wrong and inflammatory from beginning to end. The media refers to The Ukraine and The Ukrainian people striving for Western democracy and capitalism. That's false. Everybody knows that at a minimum, there are two Ukraines. One part of it, mostly in the west, wants to attach to Europe. The other part of it in the east, and partly in the south, wants to remain close to Russia. And this is caused by ethnicity, language, religion, politics, culture. So now we come to the second thing: Who precipitated this crisis? People say Putin did it, or the Ukrainian president, democratically elected, by the way, Yanukovych. But I say no. Why did the European Union tell the democratically elected of such a profoundly divided country, two Ukraines, in November, that he must decide either/or, you're either with Europe, or you're with Russia? That was a provocation, and that's where this began. And here's what's not reported. At that moment, in November and December, what was Putin's reply? He said why does Ukraine have to decide? Why can't the European Union and Russia help Ukraine out of its terrible economic crisis? And the answer was, in Washington and in Brussels, no way. Ukraine must decide.

What may be happening is the erection of a new Cold War divide in Europe, right through the heart of Ukraine. And this time, the division of Europe will not be as it was for 40 years in faraway Berlin but right on Russia's borders. If that happens that is going to be instability and the potential of war for decades to come. It will transform the landscape of international politics, and it will be a turning point for the worse for decades. Why isn't that being discussed ?