Propaganda

BBC Correspondent-Fixer Shaping Ukraine War Coverage Is PR Operative Involved In ‘War-Messaging Tool’

March 26, 2022 Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

Before serving as a fixer and reporter for the BBC in Ukraine, Orysia Khimiak handled PR for a start-up called Reface which created what the Washington Post called a “reality distorting app” now serving as “a kind of Ukrainian war-messaging tool.” According to her Linkedin profile, Khimiak was the director of PR for Reface until October 2021. While working that job, Khimiak says she built “long-term relationships with editors and media representatives.” She has also overseen a PR course for the Kiev-based Projector Institute, whose website currently greets visitors with the slogan, “Glory to Ukraine. We Will Win.” With her wealth of media contacts, Khimiak now plays an instrumental role in shaping BBC’s coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs To Stave Off War With Russia

March 24, 2022 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Joe Biden, Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The Pentagon is engaged in a consequential battle with the U.S. State Department and the Congress to prevent a direct military confrontation with Russia, which could unleash the most unimaginable horror of war. President Joe Biden is caught in the middle of the fray. So far he is siding with the Defense Department, saying there cannot be a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine fighting Russian aircraft because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.” “President Biden’s been clear that U.S. troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine, and if you establish a no-fly zone, certainly in order to enforce that no-fly zone, you’ll have to engage Russian aircraft.

Ukraine’s Propaganda War

March 24, 2022 Dan Cohen, Mintpress News. Educate! Media, Neo-Nazis, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

Washington D.C. - Since the Russian offensive inside Ukraine commenced on February 24, the Ukrainian military has cultivated the image of a plucky little army standing up to the Russian Goliath. To bolster the perception of Ukrainian military mettle, Kiev has churned out a steady stream of sophisticated propaganda aimed at stirring public and official support from Western countries. The campaign includes language guides, key messages, and hundreds of propaganda posters, some of which contain fascist imagery and even praise Neo-Nazi leaders. Behind Ukraine’s public relations effort is an army of foreign political strategists, Washington DC lobbyists, and a network of intelligence-linked media outlets.

Was Bombing Of Mariupol Theater Staged By Ukrainian Azov Extremists?

March 20, 2022 Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. Educate! Media, NATO, Neo-Nazis, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

Western media have reported that Russia’s military deliberately attacked the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, claiming that it was filled with civilians and marked with signs reading “children” on its grounds. The supposed bombing took place just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to US Congress for a no fly zone, fueling the chorus for direct military confrontation with Russia and apparently inspiring President Joseph Biden to brand Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as a “war criminal.” A closer look reveals that local residents in Mariupol had warned three days before the March 16 incident that the theater would be the site of a false flag attack launched by the openly neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which controlled the building and the territory around it.

Western Rush To Ban Everything Russian Smacks Of Totalitarianism

March 14, 2022 Joseph Massad, Middle East Eye. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Western imperialism

Western Russophobic hysteria is now in full force. German political culture, heir of the most totalitarian system the world has ever known, has led to the recent firing of a Russian orchestra conductor who refused to condemn Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine, and Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko. As a German Jewish activist friend recently told me, this incident is not totally unrelated to the firing of German Jewish musicians in 1933 as well as German Christian musicians for refusing to support National Socialism, and that was before the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. And a few weeks ago, Germany’s state-owned Deutsche Welle was busy purging Arab staff who expressed views critical of Israel - views that are identified in rabidly pro-Israel Germany as “antisemitic”.

Anti-Russian Hysteria In The US: Who Does It Serve?

March 13, 2022 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Media, NATO, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Two weeks have passed since the start of the war in Ukraine. Peoples Dispatch has written extensively about the role of NATO, and the United States more centrally, in setting the stage for the current war in Ukraine. But despite the centrality of NATO in creating this conflict, the people of NATO countries have been bombarded with news media that places the sole blame on Russia. The results of this constant propaganda on the people of NATO countries are apparent. In Canada, a Russian community center, with no ties to the Russian government, was vandalized with the colors of the Ukrainian flag. In Wales, the Cardiff Philharmonic banned Tchaikovsky from future performances. And in the United States, a country with an ugly history of war-related hysteria and racism, anti-Russian Sentiment has grown to Cold War levels.

Musings From The Margins

March 10, 2022 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Capitalism, Global South, Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism

The constant morality play that the U.S. public has been exposed to has resulted in mass support for war. Of course, ordinary people will pay the price, the ruling class will get over once again and Biden achieved his bipartisanship the old fashion way - through war! The U.S. corporate media frames the Ukraine conflict as a premeditated, unprovoked attack by the maniacal government of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. But from the very beginning of Biden’s administration, it seemed like his agenda was to create the conditions in Ukraine that would evoke a conflict with the Russian Federation. It has turned out to be one of the few objectives of his administration that was met.

Plenty Of Fuel For Manufacturing Hate

March 10, 2022 Patrick Carey, Popular Resistance. Educate! Neo-Nazis, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine

On the 7th March Maria Varenikova in The New York Times wrote that billboards were being put up along roadsides in Ukraine with “gigantic block letters” telling ordinary Russian residents of Ukraine in “profanity-laced language” to get out. This is part of an increasingly vitriolic campaign targeting the resident Russian population of Ukraine, the largest single Russian community outside of Russia in the world. In the 2001 Ukrainian census, 8,334,100 identified as ethnic Russians, 17.3% of the population. (Wikipedia) Driving it is the apparently widespread belief among Ukrainians that the Russian population is at best, lukewarm opponents of Putin’s invasion and at worst, enthusiastic supporters of it.

The Casualties Of Empire

March 9, 2022 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. Educate! Media, NATO, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The news reports come in daily from Moscow, Kiev and the Western capitals: how many dead since Russia began its intervention in Ukraine on Feb. 24, how many injured, how many hungry or cold, how many displaced. We do not know the true count of casualties and the extent of the suffering and ought not pretend we do: This is the reality of war, each side having its version of unfolding events. My inclination is to add the deaths in Ukraine these past two weeks to the 14,000 dead and the 1.5 million displaced since 2014, when the regime in Kiev began shelling its own citizens in the eastern provinces — this because the people of Donetsk and Lugansk rejected the U.S.–cultivated coup that deposed their elected president.

Another Casualty Of The Ukraine Conflict: The Truth

March 6, 2022 Michael Brenner, Scheer Post. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine

War and conflict are the enemies of truth. Accurate perception, precise language and objectivity are its first victims. For good reason. Emotion eclipses reason. The ‘we/they’ prism refracts and distorts our thoughts. The individual is swept up into the mass mood. Frenzy roils just below the surface. Experiences of war and conflict, though, are not uniform. They vary. Whose blood is being shed, in what quantities? Are we the direct protagonist or just the empathetic supporters of certain combatants? How closely and why do we identify with one side? How much do we hate the other side? Is our collective self ginger and vulnerable or self-confident? What is the pre-existing anxiety level? Consequently, each situation is peculiar. A country’s subjective response and attendant behavior, therefore, can be highly revealing.

Fake News Warfare In Ukraine Conflict

February 27, 2022 Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The ongoing geopolitical and military conflict situation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine is being used for fake news production by Western press and social media platforms, as is becoming evident. Biased reports, publications of old photographs, and even simulations and video games serve as “source” for the mainstream media and social media accounts of great influence. With the publication of fake news, they are trying to show an “indignation” against war, something that was never seen against all the atrocities perpetrated or promoted by governments such as that of the United States. In the case of the conflict in Ukraine, one of the fake news that was dismantled hours after it was broadcast consists of images of bombings and the alleged activation of anti-aircraft defense systems in Ukrainian territory.

Disarming Ukraine – Day Four

February 27, 2022 Moon of Alabama. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine

Yesterday anyone watching Euronews on one screen and Russian state television on another would have been perplexed by the totally contradictory coverage of both with respect to the fate of the armed detachment of Ukrainian border guards on one island in the southeast of Ukraine. Euronews carried the address of President Zelensky awarding posthumous designation as Heroes of Ukraine to the entire detachment, which reportedly resisted the attacking Russian forces and were slaughtered. Meanwhile Russian news showed those same border guards seated at tables and signing sworn statements that they voluntarily lay down their arms and awaited repatriation to their homes and families. Earlier today I took this screenshot from the New York Times website. Reading the collection of items under the above New York Times headline I fail to find any news of a bombardment of Kiev or of Russian military involvement in street fighting within the city.

Twelve Thoughts On Ukraine

February 26, 2022 Caitlin Johnstone. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the goal of which he claims is not to occupy the country but to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” it. We’ve no reason to put blind faith in any of those claims. Only time will tell. As of this writing dozens have reportedly been killed so far. All war is horrific. We can only hope that this one winds up being the least horrific a war can be. Some thoughts: 1. This whole thing could very easily have been avoided with a little bit of diplomacy. The only reason that didn’t happen was it would have meant the US empire taking a teensy, weensy step back from its agenda of total planetary domination. I’ve seen people call it “sad” or “unfortunate” that western powers didn’t make basic low-cost, high-yield concessions like guaranteeing no NATO membership for Ukraine and having Kyiv honor the Minsk agreement, but it’s not sad, and it’s not unfortunate. It’s enraging. That they did this deserves nothing but pure, unadulterated, white hot rage.

War In Europe And The Rise Of Raw Propaganda

February 26, 2022 John Pilger. Educate! Media, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Marshall McLuhan’s prophecy that “the successor to politics will be propaganda” has happened. Raw propaganda is now the rule in Western democracies, especially the US and Britain. On matters of war and peace, ministerial deceit is reported as news. Inconvenient facts are censored, demons are nurtured. The model is corporate spin, the currency of the age. In 1964, McLuhan famously declared, “The medium is the message.” The lie is the message now. But is this new? It is more than a century since Edward Bernays, the father of spin, invented “public relations” as a cover for war propaganda. What is new is the virtual elimination of dissent in the mainstream. The great editor David Bowman, author of The Captive Press, called this “a defenestration of all who refuse to follow a line and to swallow the unpalatable and are brave”.

Western Media Fall In Lockstep For Neo-Nazi Publicity Stunt In Ukraine

February 24, 2022 John McEvoy, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Media, Neo-Nazis, Propaganda, Ukraine, US Imperialism

When the corporate media push for war, one of their main weapons is propaganda by omission. In the case of the recent crisis in Ukraine, Western journalists have omitted key context about the expansion of NATO since the end of the Cold War, as well as US support for the Maidan coup in 2014 (FAIR.org, 1/28/22). A third and crucial case of propaganda by omission relates to the integration of neo-Nazis into the Ukrainian armed forces (FAIR.org, 3/7/14, 1/28/22). If the corporate media reported more critically about Western support for the neo-Nazi-infested Ukrainian security services, and how these forces function as a front-line proxy of US foreign policy, public support for war might be reduced and military budgets called into greater question.

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