WESTERN MEDIA AND THE UKRAINE CRISIS

Today we’re witnessing a giant media propaganda war against Russia, particularly against Crimea and against the Russians in Ukraine. There are many lies circulating in the media. There is a kind of media fantasy that imagines that we are seeing a rerun of the Cold War and a tendency to see the worst in every move that Russia makes. And there is a lack of sympathy or empathy or understanding, whichever side you’re on, whatever your interpretation of events in Ukraine.

There is a tremendous weakening of the standard of journalism and it began a few months ago where there was little discussion going on about what was happening in Ukraine, because the whole Ukraine story was represented in a language of right and wrong. The really disturbing fact is that those media lies are now influencing the thinking and decisions of the responsible politicians as well.

Five reasons stand out for the kind of media reporting we’re seeing:

1. Western reporters covering Crimea ignore the big picture and are more focused on secondary distractions like whether there’s a chance of a new Cold War.
2. Journalistic stenography that equates attending a government press conference with research.
3. Reporters identifying with their government, not questioning its actions while assuming that rivals of the West are ill-intentioned.
4. Journalists covering too many different beats. A few decades ago, there would have been a bureau chief, or at least a stringer, who knew Ukraine and/or the former Soviet Union because he or she lived there.
5. The widespread and widely acceptable ignorance of politics, history, culture of other countries.

It is a fact universally acknowledged that a journalist in possession of a good story must insist it be based in truth. Facts are, after all, one of the essential building blocks of good journalism: you can’t have good journalism without them. Journalism is about unearthing facts – not just accurate ones but the right ones, difficult ones, uncomfortable ones, and putting them in context. There is a critical distinction in news reporting between recording information and understanding and framing it.

Asking hard questions, insisting on the truth; verifying what sources say is what journalism is all about . Journalists need to gain back this lost ground in their everyday reporting, not outsource it. The facts are always less than what really happened, and that is where journalism and good storytelling has the advantage, if not the duty.