Today I will begin by looking at how the Ukrainian conflict is covered in the international media thanks to this blog’s network of 55 correspondents and translators in the following regions: Europe, North America, South America, Middle-East, Russia/CIS, Indian Subcontinent, Far East Asia, Oceania and Africa. Below I am reproducing some reports I selected form those which our correspondents sent me. This is our first try at that, so we ask for your undersanding and patience with us.
North America:
B. reports from North Carolina: all news media is owned and operated by the usual mainstream conglomerates, occasionally offering independent regional reports, otherwise merely regurgitating official propaganda funneled through their corporate news feeds. The majority of people in this region are exceptionalistically (not a word but apropos) pro-U.S. first and foremost, pro-NATO/EU to some degree, although most do not concern themselves with international affairs, and, of course, anti-Russian, some of whom have retained remnants of fear from the Cold War era “Red Scare” propaganda campaigns, especially older Americans. Shortly after the putsch, I voiced my concern to the NBC/MSNBC newsroom that their frequent personal attacks and fear mongering against Putin and Russia could possibly create a backlash inciting fear, hate and perhaps violence towards Russians living in the U.S. among those so inclined.
J. reports from Canada: Many Canadians are very loyal to the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, a crown corporation, and accept its perspective without much question. (Perhaps similar to National Public Radio in the US.) Here are four selected excerpts this morning from CBC news. Notice that while each of the statements is factually true, it amounts to pro-west propaganda. My feeling is that most Canadians accept this kind of reporting without question:
There were no immediate signs of any outright intimidation by pro-Russian forces Sunday, and insurgents near the polls were not wearing their usual balaclavas. The insurgents in the east have seized government buildings and clashed with government troops and police over the past month. More than 30 people have been reported killed since Ukrainian forces began trying to retake some eastern cities from the insurgents. Over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian government and the West have accused Russia of trying to destabilize the country or create a pretext for another invasion. Russia — which annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula just days after voters there approved secession in a March referendum — has rejected the accusations. “The farce, which terrorists call the referendum, will have no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility for its organizers,” Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in a statement Monday.
The Donetsk People’s Republic was declared Monday by Denis Pushilin, a 32-year-old businessman who is accused of having run a pyramid scheme before emerging last month as the political leader of a pro-Russian rebel movement whose gunmen seized control of government buildings around the Donetsk region. Almost immediately after declaring sovereignty, Mr. Pushilin appealed to Moscow to absorb Donetsk, which he said had “always been part of the Russian world.” Addressing a packed press conference inside a government building held by pro-Russian gunmen, Mr. Pushilin bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union as a “catastrophe.”
Europe:
C. reports from Greece: Most of the mainstread print media give what appears to be a balanced report of the situation: in their majority they don’t offer their own opinion on the referendum and quote all relevant stakeholders. The gist they present is that most of the people in East Ukraine voted in a “controversial” referendum, amidst violence, which has been declared illegal by Kiev, the EU, the USA etc. The West, the media report, accuse Putin of trying to destabilize the region, something which Moscow denies. So, for the unsuspected reader, this is a more or less balanced story, easily digestible. However, the choice of titles for the articles and the language used throughout indicates a pro-American bias. An example is an article from the newspaper Ethnos, which is entitled The referendum in East Ukraine “a criminal farce with the support of the Kremlin”, using a quote that came out of Kiev (http://www.ethnos.gr/article.
C. reports from Germany: The German media reported the results truthfully but did its best to discredit the referendum. Most articles quote one of the freaks in Kiev to provide the opposing opinion. Furthermore, the German media is emphasizing that nobody will recognize the referendum citing for example German FM Steinmeier (Steinmeier: Referendum ist nicht ernst zu nehmen). But it gets even worse. Bild sent a reporter into eastern Ukraine. He visited several polling stations with his friend “Vladimir” from Donetsk and “Vladimir” voted at least seven times to demonstrate how easy it was to manipulate the referendum (the article is behind a paywall but you can watch a short video about it here). Der Spiegel is following a similar approach. One Spiegel reporter, who was in Mariupol, stressed that there are no lists of registered voters and therefore everybody could vote multiple times. This was reemphasized in another Spiegel article today and has been highlighted by several German media outlets. Of course, nobody mentions the fact that Kiev had refused to hand out these lists. The Süddeutsche Zeitung published a summary of all the “evidence” refuting the validity of the referendum including this phony SBU recording:
“Was für eine Farce”
Mehrfachwähler, gefälschte Stimmzettel und Busladungen voller Separatisten, die aus anderen Landesteilen zur Abstimmung angekarrt wurden: Nach der Volksabstimmung über eine Abspaltung der Ostukraine werden Betrugsvorwürfe laut. Das ganze Referendum, so kommentieren viele, sei eine Farce.
Now the good news: The majority of the German population is fed up with the propaganda and understands the Russian point of view. Although most Germans do not necessarily support Russia in this conflict, they do not support the U.S. or the EU either. Two weeks ago, I wrote an article for Boiling Frogs Post about this issue, which deals with the struggle of the German people against the local oligarchy and AngloZionist influence:
Another noteworthy development is the recent work of a German satirical television program, which is aired on ZDF (one of Europe’s biggest public-service television broadcasters famous for its NATO propaganda): [русские субтитры] – Немецкое телевидение насмехается над Майданом – German TV laughed at Maidan
[русские субтитры] – Новый выпуск немецкого “Дурдома”! О России и Украине
C. reports from France: Articles in the French media about the referendum are without any surprise. They all say the same thing. But there is something really interesting. Since das Bild’s publication of the American mercenaries in Ukraine yesterday, the main-stream newspaper and radio have repercuted this information (le Monde, le Point, Le Figaro, Boursorama, radio Europe1, RTL,..)
“L’hebdomadaire allemand “Bild am Sonntag” révèle que des employés de la société américaine privée Blackwater combattent aux côtés de l’armée régulière ukrainienne.//Environ 400 mercenaires d’une //*entreprise militaire privée américaine, Blackwater, *//opèrent en Ukraine aux côtés des soldats et de la police ukrainienne dans des opérations contre les séparatistes pro-russes, affirme le journal allemand//Bild am Sonntag //ce dimanche 11 mai.”
The alternative anglo-french blog dedefensa.org gives an interesting analysis of the publication of the Bild http://www.dedefensa.org/article-les_myst_res_de_bild_12_05_2014.html the analysis seems true for the French press. Is it the beginning of the “sifflement du ballon qui se dégonfle” “wistle of the balloon that desinflates”? It should be noted that this information, that alternative media had already given sometimes ago, had never been given by the main stream media.
A. reports from Italy: our main newspapers are Corriere della Sera (the one read in foreing countries, it is like a whasington post), LaRepubblica (leftist, it is comparable with NYT and LeMonde) and Sole24ore (economic newspaper). Also there are IlGiornale and Libero (more rightist and, given they are aligned to Berlusconi, more free somehow) and LaStampa (Agnelli’s property).
Summary: as usual Italian media is totally aligned with propaganda. You can find more liberty in not very mainstream media (like the ones owned by Berlusconi – incredible but true). WHat i report below are the main articles dedicated today to Ucraine – which are basically all the same – and an interesting one (last one) by Il, Giornale special reporter with exclusive (but free) videos and audios contents. My personal understanding is that our media stress a lot any facts that can be used, also if ambiguous, against Russia; putting then aside any neutral news. Also, it is clear to me concertation of western medias but this is not a big finding. Italians do not trust anyone (neither each other) especially in this strange times with no values. With many doubts, they are basically aligned to US, in any case. Remember that Italy has a long story of getting into a war on the wrong side. Luckily (and quietly disappointing for other countries) we also have the costume to end wars on the right one. I hope this will also be the case.
Three examples:
Corriere della Sera: The news about Ukrains (may 12th, 11.40 am) are in the middle of the web page, not very visibile. The title is: Ucraina, il referendum chiuso con un plebiscito: 95% di sì Ucraina. First part of the article try to report facts, without biasing them it seems. Then follows the statement that for the west the referendum is illegal. The article add that major of Svatove refuses to organize referendum. Then it is finally written some considerations about the validity of the referendum. The news (like the civilian killed) are reported but not explained to a “normal reader”. Also, it is stated that population is knonw about the non validity of referendum but that they do not care, they want to send a signal.
La Stampa: La Stampa, as usual, it is aligned to Corriere and Repubblic in Foreign policy (that is the foreign policy of a country with 300 US bases in its territory, more or a less). It is interesting that the Ukraine news are above on the web site (LaStampa has more sophisticated readers, usually)
ILGiornale: More interesting ILGiornale, which is currently reporting situation FROM Ukraine having sent there journalist Fausto Biloslavo (by the means of crowfunding funded vy readers). This article try to provide a more impartial point of view, just telling what Biloslavo sees.
L. reports from Sweden: Unsurprisingly, there’s nothing in Swedish media (Svenska Dagbladet – svd.se and Aftonbladet – aftonbladet.se) on Blackwater mercs. They follow their old script and pretend the news doesn’t exist; in exceptional cases, such a news that was left out in Sweden but makes it ’round the world usually comes back to the local media a few days later as a twisted one-liner (like “German tabloids have reported that…”) with no significance. However, there are reports by Aftonbladet (they just translate a story by CNN) on shootings in Krasnoarmijsk with at least 2 dead. On the other hand, Balkan media has noticed and reported the “Academy” news, quoting both “Welt am Sontag” and “The Voice of Russia” (they even reminded their readers on last week’s news proliferated by German media about “dozens of US alphabet soup agencies’ agents counseling Yatz’s gubbermint). The referendum, as well as every other news coming out of Ukraine, is reported on with a pro-Banderastan tone in each and every one of Swedish media (both papers and TV/radio). Balkan media (I visit mostly Serbian and Macedonian) are attempting to be more objective and report on activities transmitted by both sides, though majority of editorials and guest analyses are pro-Russian (coming out of the pens of people that’ve seen enough of the Empire’s goodwill).
“But the votes needed not to be tallied to know the result. It was clear from the beginning and made even more apparent throughout the day, as Soviet-style tactics of ballot stuffing, manipulation and intimidation were observed at polling stations across the regions: the referendums in the so-called “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk would pass.
Lastly, who do the people support? That’s difficult. Throughout this whole tortured time, I’ve not seen a great outpouring of support for the junta here in Kiev. Nor have I seen the opposite. Sentiment in social media runs 90% for, but I don’t believe that’s representative of the population as a whole. There was a surprising strong turnout for Victory Day celebrations last week, although there was no official government support for it that I was aware of, beyond Yats bringing some flowers to the main celebration site. No doubt people are tired of the whole thing. And, preparations for the May 25 election is extremely subdued compared to past elections.
Their 24 hour continuous NEWS features regular 15 minute updates spinning the expected anti-Russia “invasion” “aggression” Putin bad. Like one of the correspondents mentioned, they report “facts” but the spin creates confusion and lack of clarity. The drum beat suggestion is stoic Western powers enduring the irrational, unpredictable and disruptive influences on the “rebels” “separatists” “gunmen” being “directed” “supported” etc by Russia, by Putin, ambitious and unpredictable Putin intent on expanding his power and sphere of influence.
News Ltd flagship newspaper is The Australian. News Ltd also runs some regional newspapers around Australia (Aug 7, 2013 – News Corp Australia titles account for 59% of the sales of all daily newspapers, with sales of 17.3 million papers a week, making it Australia’s …) I won’t report their take on anything. You know what they say. I don’t buy that POS (piece of shit) but checking their on-line version today there is NOTHING on anything going in Ukraine. Hard to believe. The Fairfax papers are the other major newspaper operation here. Their website relegates the Ukraine story to a place of little prominence today BUT their coverage is written by Paul McGeough, the Chief Foreign Corespondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age [Melbourne, Australia]. He has distinguished himself covering Iraq and is a man with clarity and accuracy in his reports that often runs counter to the accepted and promoted editorial stance. He has done a reasonable job here;
My private rationale about David Ignatius is that he is a writer of fiction, even when disguised as fact.
http://www.thelocal.de/20140516/ex-german-chancellor-helmut-schmidt-slams-eu-over-ukraine
I wish to disagree with you about your assessment of Fairfax media in NZ.
They are amongst the worst at towing the party line about Russia. If I followed NZ media I probably wouldn’t even know where Ukraine was!!
There is almost zero reflection of the true position, which is why I do a daily blog (‘google’ SEEMOREROCKS)
I carry, amongst other things, reports from this excellent site.
Thanks, Saker, for all that you do1
I wish to disagree with you about your assessment of Fairfax media in NZ.
They are amongst the worst at towing the party line about Russia. If I followed NZ media I probably wouldn’t even know where Ukraine was!!
There is almost zero reflection of the true position, which is why I do a daily blog (‘google’ SEEMOREROCKS)
I carry, amongst other things, reports from this excellent site.
Thanks, Saker, for all that you do1
This involves immense hard work. Very impressed. You are going to rival the MSM soon. Very soon InshAllah.
Mindfriedo
Well, if you want a taste of Slovak media:
Jewish oligarch is seen as national hero by Ukrainians
American expert: Russia´ll lose second cold war (George Friedman says, that this is american century and European Union will not survive)
Crimean Tatars commemorated Stalin´s deportations, despite of a ban
This are the headlines from today in one of the most visited online newspaper “SME”. For real.
Saker,
I believe you mis-typed your email address in the last sentence of this post. FYI. :)
Should have mentioned you and your team of journalist instead of only you. Excellent work guys. All of you. This is striving and doing. You guys are fighting the good fight. And no matter how modest your first effort may seem, it just portends where it’s headed.
Mindfriedo
Hmm,
It seems Chinese people/media are among the few countries that supporting and sympathizing with Russia.
A big ‘Thumbs Up’ to all of you that have contributed reports. In this way I get many more angles [right or wrong, doesn’t really matter] to stories than I would otherwise be privy to. Indeed, very much appreciated, because it makes my life almost peachy keen.
@Abraham/Avarachan:I believe you mis-typed your email address in the last sentence of this post. FYI. :)
Wow! I marvel at my own ability to make typos in everything I write, even in an email address I have been using for 8 years now…
Anyway, thanks a lot for the pointer. I corrected it now.
Cheers,
The Saker
A question to those who live in the Ukraine at the moment; in the early days we saw helicopter
attacks and choppers being shot down. Is the coup-installed government still relying on non-fixed-wing aircraft?
Living in the Netherlands for the last 25 years (American ex-pat) I haven’t paid too much attention to the Dutch news about Ukraine, but tonight read through some of two major newspapers, one right (with Nazi supportive roots in WW2) and one soft left.
Both gave me the distinct impression of presenting both sides, but tending toward the EU position. Still, they gave relatively decent coverage of the Russian side of events, albeit with a bit of question.
I’d call the Netherlands close to neutral, leaning a bit toward the western version, based on this quick reading. I’ll keep more of an eye on this.
As in all other western countries, this is an oligarchy, but with a better social track record than most in the past. That time is past now, it becoming more like the U.S. here in many regards. The oligarchs are in power and are destroying the social structure rather quickly.
Kudos to all the hard work by everyone here, and serious kudos to each and every person who, whatever the platform, manages to get the truth out. But really, phew, how thoroughly depressing to get hammered by essentially the same lies in damned near every corner of the globe. Looking on the bright side, though: in terms of awful, sold-out press, we are in fact equal just about everywhere. And God bless the Internet, for however much longer we still have it. El Nino or not, it looks like it’s going to be a long, hot summer.
I’m not so interested in what the mainstream media lies about, because I no longer expect anything honest from them.
I am far more interested in hearing what citizens around the world think about events in Syria and Ukraine.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how many average Canadians I have heard who are highly sceptical of MSM reports and who are not hostile toward Russia. The media seems to have discredited itself by going too far with its propaganda role.
Ria Novosti works for NATO/EU.
Canadians aren’t any different than their bosses from the South; brain is used only to fill out the emptiness in the skull!
Saker, I applaud your idea and the reports from so many across the globe! Thank you and all who contributed… an outstanding enterprise. What a treasure this site is! I have watched the increase in comments and commentators – it’s incredible! There is a wonderful atmosphere here – one of respect and concern for the “other” – may it continue to expand, like ripples on a pond, throughout the internet. Namaste
@crone: There is a wonderful atmosphere here – one of respect and concern for the “other” – may it continue to expand, like ripples on a pond, throughout the internet.
Namaste, thank you for your kind words. This is indeed the goal towards which I strive as best I can. I am truly lucky to have some wonderful people sharing their knowledge and wisdom with all of us here in the comments section.
I am sincerely grateful for your appreciation!
Kind regards,
The Saker
Off topic, but interesting nonetheless…
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=11240
:-) Nice poster from the 1920s:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/The_Don_Basin_-_the_heart_of_Russia.jpg
Hi.
unfortunately in Germany the media is pushing really hard now against the people in the eastern part, calling them bandits etc. It almost looks like there was a time a while ago when they reported more careful but now they made up their mind. The ratio of somewhat neutral reports to propaganda is about 1:9. Here’s an interesting article about the long history of CIA/Nazi colloaborations in the ukraine (in germnan):
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/41/41795/1.html
Citing this report (english)
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf
To Mikhail II… Next time I read his column…I’ll remember he’s a fiction writer…and then it won’t be so confusing. Not sure how to read Anne Applebaum, however. Her columns are particularly taxing. Is she a reporter? An analyst? Or a politicians wife? Or a dual-citizen? Or perhaps she’s multi-citizen? So confusing. Or just conflicted. Very, very conflicted. Like a house divided. Which cannot stand.
It’s not that I mind reading OP-EDs with which I disagree. I rather enjoy looking at issues from differing viewpoints. But WAPO OP-EDs don’t ever present a DIFFERENT view. It’s the same one. Then spin, rinse, repeat.
Makes me incredibly sad that America depleted its enormous well-being and good-will in taking the side of evil for the past 50 years. The good we COULD have done we didn’t do. Too stupid, ignorant or venal to follow TRUTH. I’m grateful to have this site as a light to a weary traveler.
As always, thank you Saker.
The newspaper ParisMatch had this interesting read. http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Revelations-on-the-Krasnoarmeysk-killing-564127
Junta forces seem to have heavy losses in Donbass:
http://voiceodessa.ru/news/yugo-vostok/igor-strelkov-predostavil-dannye-o-poter.html
Just a heads up that there is a great article at Naked Capitalism called “The Birth of a Eurasian Century: Russia and China Do Pipelineistan” by Pepe Escobar and is very much worth reading. The address is below-
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/birth-eurasian-century-russia-china-pipelineistan.html
I am in Australia-Oceania- and concur with your correspondent.
Years ago, many years, I gave up MSM due to the fact of my own extreme dissonance between my own experiences in Oz and the rest of the ‘establishment’.
That dissonance has considerably expanded, while my own intuitions and sensitivities (not to mention ethics and integrity) have been preserved, until I had to return to the home of my parents, where the television 24 ABC blares (because of their deafness), and my father is a loyal, faithful reader of his god aka the Sydney Morning Herald.
I, on the other hand, am, according to my father, ‘a nutter’.
But that becomes an other story for another day.
Kudos to the Saker and your Oceania correspondent.
God bless and Keep the people of Ukraine, Russia, America et al.
The apparent consistency gives opportunities for more intense co-ordinated bathos worldwide in the future through the dissonance between ideology and experience.
The notion that such consistency is disadvantageous at the moment is based on the assumption that there is validity in the “West’s self-absorption” and that “representative democracy” is a pathway to solution.
At this point the important players are not the populations in the West, nor even the laughably designated supposed entities United States or European Union.
The important players are the coalescing opponents elsewhere.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-non-linear-warfare-agenda-and-the-right-to-resist/5382799
I am very suspicious of any report from Sweden. It is a country that has a reputation for being very liberal but do not be deceived. After seeing what they did to Julian Asange I have difficulty in trusting the words of any Swede. I was taught as a child that Swedes were unreliable. In spite of my name I am actually a Finn.
Mainstream Canadian news is just as your correspondent said. They generally don’t lie, and they don’t write rabid texts (like some in the US) – but within those limitations, they do everything possible to uphold the NATO narrative. The only person who ever presents a different view is the Russian Ambassador to Canada, an old-school Soviet-era diplomat whom they’ve let on TV a few times (there are usually Ukrainian protestors outside the studio when he’s in).
Here’s something else:
Toronto (Canada’s biggest city) has a weekly Russian news TV show called “Russian Waves”. They mostly carry reports from Russian TV channels, but as far as I noticed, they’re not broadcasting anything at all about Ukraine.
In Canada, all federal politicians, all provincial politicians, and even all *municipal* politicians (in Toronto) are firmly behind the NATO narrative, and sometimes make symbolic gestures to show this (such as replacing the Canadian flag at Toronto city hall with a Ukrainian one). There are many pro-Kiev protestors. If anyone disagrees with the dominant narrative, they are not doing it publicly.
I think that the people who DO disagree (Russian-speaking immigrants, of which there are a lot) don’t want to stick their necks out, because they have a pretty comfortable life here and don’t want to be seen as enemies.
some of these news organisations have a method of contacting them to comment on stories (even without a blog section)
I don’t know if it will do any good but you can have a go. I contacted the BBC following the posting here.
regards
Re: the alternative media for France and other countries, your correspondents should not forget
Voltaire.net. The French language version is
at: http://www.voltairenet.org. The English language version is at: http://www.voltairenet.org/en. Sometimes they don’t have all of the same articles posted.
(There are also other language versions.)
Voltairenet has some articles which provide very good coverage of Ukraine.
MAY 19, 2014
From All Sides, Warning Signals
Fascist Trifecta
by NORMAN POLLACK
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/19/fascist-trifecta/
I recommend this article.
The Birth of a Eurasian Century
by Pepe Escobar
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page3/the_birth_of_a_eurasian_century_20140519
N-V
Re David Ignatius: May have reacted too viscerally. (Detest his columns.) A retired, now deceased, Langley middle manager (Don Praisner, later county councilman) said Ignatius’s fiction reflected deep insider knowledge of the Agency. So I’d guess his columns may reflect the Agency’s point-of-view in bureaucratic struggles within the U.S. Government.
Russia has no chance against the propaganda war.
It ‘s going to get worse. Soon Putin will be eating children for breakfast…
If Putin thinks that by giving in to anglosaxon evil empire the weatern press will be more favourable to Russia then he is in for a shock.
putin is opposed exactly ebcause anglos think that putin is good for Russia.
putin is too slow for any game. he shoudl have done gas deal 3 years ago. now he is hoping agasint hope when it was Russia who by its inaction to help her allies has invited her enemy at her door.
Biscmark was right-important things are decided not by talk. this is what putin does not understand even less the idiot lavrov the big blabber.
if you have no big gun and even if you have but have no guts to use it then you dnot deserve to be called a power. and according to anglos you donot desreve to even exist.
the media is so anti russia because russia shows herself to be weakling and unrelable ally to her freinds.
> F. reports from Nigeria: Most media in this part of the world generally do not
> concern themselves with international news, but to keep their readers, viewers,
> listeners entertained they usually just copy and edit the BBC or Aljazeera …
It is beyond me why people in Nigeria (or in any other place outside Britain) would want to watch, listen to or read the biased and manipulative junk that comes from one of the most devious media corporations on the planet.
Just have a look at their news front page on any day. It’s full of well written, harmless looking little stories that always and without exception turn out to be the carrier for some sort of subliminal message. A while back I found there under the title “Peru’s indigenous Amazon peoples adopt economics” this truly repulsive little gem …
“Hernando de Soto champions a free market, pro-business approach to bring development to the urban poor. Can his ideas work in the Amazon?”
… all delivered in the usual casual BBC cheeriness but pure anthrax, if you ask me. My advice to Nigerians is to stick to their local, regional or national broadcasters if they care about a view of the world that resembles reality. Just make sure your networks aren’t financed and controlled by people in London, Paris, Brussels or Washington.
The thing with journalism and owning media outlets today is, that many top journalists and publishers are bound in some of the many open or obscure atlantic freindship organisations.
For example the Springer School of Journalism is such an entity. Journalist who work for the Springer Media must state in their contracts never to negatively critisise capitalism and/or the transatlantic alignment between Europe and the US.
This connections do exisist for all major European Media Houses. So it is no wonder that all major papers are reporting the same news with the same words and the same press pictures.
How tightly controlled and aligend with a certain ideology the information is brought to you and your family shows that in the year 1945 in the US 3 out 4 Media was independently i.e privately owned.
In 1980 this was reduced to about 50 major Media houses responsible for about 90% of delivered content in the US alone.
Today in America, 90% of all content (Online, TV, Radio, Books, Papers, Magazines) is brought to you by just 5 major media corporations… they also spawn across Europe, Asia, Africa and Southamerica… Russia and probaly China and India being the exception.
We are very much close to living in a totalitarian system would it not be for the internet. The FCC is on the way to kill this as well and corporations like google are the masterminds behind all this because to want to make even more profits.
Saker, maybe consider the following view:
For me what is at least as important as the analysis of the MSM articles is people’s reactions in the comments section. Usually they are short and different voices of different people, but with a little practise one can see the sentiment quickly. Maybe you can instruct your correspondents to also provide a brief analysis of the readers sentiment.
The way I do it is not by actually fully reading every comment, but by simply reading the particular comment far enough until I can categorize where it stands and until I can recognize the general mood of the readership… and then in the results for example I have 12 pro-Russia 5 pro-Ukr, 6 neutral.
To Mikhail II: Yes…that’s the way his columns read. Feeding unfiltered talking points from Langley. My tax dollars at work.
Many, many moons ago I was on the periphery of his social set — during his time at WSJ. His father was one of the inner-circle — Georgetown intelligentsia. These were people who didn’t look you in the eye when speaking because they were too busy searching the room for someone “better”. The only thing I remember were that his suits were beautifully cut. And he was short. And unattractive. Without charm.
Saker,
May I second 123abc’s request that the wonderful correspondents who provided all this (deeply depressing but hardly unexpected) information on what propaganda we’re being fed, now focus on the comments people are making? Checklists like that, every so often, would really be interesting, and quite helpful in figuring out what we each can do about all this.
Very interesting piece in todays NYT suggesting a deal of sorts between Putin and Poroshenko. Their tone seems a little softer on Putin, perhaps signalling a way out? It’s too much, of course, to ever expect us to admit we’ve overstepped — but an unacknowledged change in course is still better than charging madly ahead.
“Recently, Mr. Poroshenko has struck a conciliatory tone, promising to mend ties with Russia and saying at a news conference on Sunday that he opposed holding a referendum on Ukrainian membership in NATO. He has also sought to bring normalcy to the campaign, assuring voters that he will provide security if elected but stressing a more traditional message: jobs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/world/europe/frontrunner-in-ukraine-election-may-be-shifting-putins-stance.html?_r=0
To add something to what “E” said about Canada.
Last week Thomas Muclair, leader of the NDP (very moderate Social Democrats in European terms, and the no.2 party currently) criticized the Harper (Conservative) government for not imposing enough sanctions against Russia.
To put this in context, up until about twenty years ago the NDP had as part of its policy platform the idea of Canada leaving NATO and becoming a neutral state.
We have almost no dialogue about foreign policy here. All the political parties and all the MSM loyally follow the Empire line every single time.
In the specific case of the Ukraine, part of the story here is domestic. There is a large Ukrainian-Canadian population in Manitoba especially, and most of these are people whose ancestors came from Austro-Hungarian Galicia.
You guys all did a great job. Thanks.
Regarding the Italian correspondent’s “incredible” report that Berlusconi’s media empire is more objective on the Ukraine issue and refuses to toe the EU line, here’s a little piece from CounterPunch giving a possible motive for Berlusconi’s disdain for Brussels:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/19/the-plot-to-topple-berlusconi/
In Poland, all mainstream media are selling antirussian pro-banderist propaganda. Especially, media connected to “Prawo i Sprawiedliwość”, friends of Ukrainian oligarchs, are saying that “russian specnaz did Odessa massacre” !!! I am serious folks and this statements made me sick.
These zionist minions have no emphaty for innocent victims.
Bunch of pathetic liars. And this party is considered as most probanderist entity in Polish. Antirussian propaganda machine is clearly loosing in the internet, politicians are horrified how many people are not buying they lies. Regime newspapers are completly loosing readers, same with news broadcasts. They are saying that polish internet is hijacked by “russians agents” :) Of course Poles are sick and tired about helping kiev junta and UPA terrorists.
Also so called historians from Right Sector and Svoboda have been invited to our country and they were making statements like “We are Innocent, Poles are lying, we haven’t commited any murder” ! They are spiting these lies directly at Polish people faces and no mainstream politician react, no prosecutor is intrested with charging banderists even if they claims against Wolyn massacre are against our law.
Andrew
Sorry for grammar mistakes, but this due to auto-correction system on blogger.
Andrew
@Saker -your comment -quote “First, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the junta in Kiev is clearly provoking Moscow in every possible way. If one could maybe see some marginal and far-fetched military rationale for the kind of random artillery strikes the Ukies are unleashing on Slavianks, Kramatorsk and other cities, the arrest of the LifeNews news-crew makes no sense at all. They were put on their knees, beat up, held with their faces to the ground – all on video which was then “leaked” to Youtube as if the death squads were provoking the Kremlin with a “what are you gonna do about it?” message/
Second, I believe that the appointment of Biden’s son to the board of directors of the main Ukie energy company whose concessions are all in the eastern Ukraine is also a way of further provoking the Kremlin.
So why would the junta do all this?”
because you can provoke only lively things not dead like entity which Russia has become.
Russia and china are all talk and no action. they are mentally impotant despite having means to counter their enemies.
Russia shoudl have done deal with china on gas 6 years ago but still untill today the deal has not been signed!.
kick out lavrov and medvedev first.
Crazy Ivan says…
@ Anon 20 May, 2014 18:18
Wait a moment. You are right and wrong as well.
You must take into account all conditions under which present Russia exists.
When Mr Putin came to Kreml he moved all military budget money to improve, keep updated and planning new nuclear weapons at the expense of conventional arms. Someone wise wrote about it, not me.
That’s why Russia lags 20-30 years behind Western military technologies.
Did he choose right or not? Answer yourself.
In 2014 Russia is in half road to full modernization set for 2020. Just like China.
You said – “they are mentally impotant despite having means to counter their enemies.” What means? Nukes? Do you think that bluffing with nukes always bring the expected results? Sometimes it’s better to make step back if losses can be made up for later.
The gas deal is a thorn in Russian ass because Chinese felt strong and think they can dictate Russia every nonsense. They are vulnerable to be break up into smaller provinces but are bluffing all the time.
It is Russia which has advantage in those negotiations. China wants too much lately.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-03-190514.html
SINOGRAPH
Beijiing falls short of international vision
By Francesco Sisci
They are trying to be “too” independent if not too “hegemonic” in this nascent new world.
@E @toronto mike
Fellow Canadian here. I back the Saker correspondent’s statements about CBC. To give CBC some credit, I find them considerably more neutral compared to the stuff I’ve seen out of BBC or USA MSM.
I’d like to add that from what I can see, Russia Today is becoming an increasingly trusted and popular news website, especially among young people.