American Media Coverage of the Ukraine — Russia War Has Been Intellectually Dishonest. Here’s Why.

In February 2022 Russian troops invaded Ukraine from the east. The invasion was portrayed as an attempt to liberate ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine.

Since that time, the war has grown more and more intense, and the casualty count on both sides has risen.

Meanwhile, back in the United States — and around the world for that matter — media coverage of the conflict has been near-uniformly pro-Ukrainian.

From the moment the conflict began, NATO and the industrialized countries have supplied Ukraine with weapons, logistics, manpower and training. More recently the US has joined the conflict, most likely through covert as well as overt support.

So why all the fuss about Ukraine? It’s a middle-income country situated on the border with Russia that has been under Russia’s rule numerous times over the past several centuries.

But this time is different. Over the past few years Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he will never allow NATO to accept Ukraine as a member. But with NATO also considering allowing new Eastern European and Central Asian countries as members for collective defense, Putin seems to have had enough.

So Russia launched the invasion in February, and hellacious fire and brimstone followed.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Putin is an undeniable megalomaniac who has done terrible things to his people. And he does indeed possess a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. But so do nine other countries in the world. You can look them up if you like.

What really makes me choke in my ramen noodle soup is that over the past, oh let’s say thirty years, there have been at least 30 conflicts raging around the world at different times. The ones that caught Americans’ attention the most were Iraq and Afghanistan. And we all know how those two turned out for the USA. I mean, what’s below grade F?

The worst conflict by far, however, was centered around the Democratic Republic of Congo, in central Africa. Ten nations fought proxy wars in and around Congo. The conflict was so territorially far-reaching that it came to be known as Africa’s World War. When the war finally settled down somewhat, it was estimated that up to five million Africans had died.

Wait, you haven’t heard of Africa’s World War? That’s because the Western media largely ignored it. This is in contrast to Ukraine, where media are literally embedded with NATO forces. Every day they feed the American and world media the propaganda it gives to us on CNN, Fox, and the like. Even ostensibly “independent” media outlets like BBC and Al-Jazeera have basically toed the party line that “THIS IS THE WORST CONFLICT EVER TO HAPPEN ON PLANET EARTH.”

Ha! Anyone who’s ever heard of Okinawa or the beaches of Normandy during World War II would beg to differ.

The plain and simple fact is that Ukranians are white, number one, and they have more money than people in poorer countries, number two. So they matter more.

Of course geopolitics matter too, and no one wants to see an aggressive Russia setting its sights on weaker countries, like it did during the Cold War (1945–1991).

But can we please have a slightly more balanced debate here in America? Let us decide for ourselves what’s really happening and who has the moral upper hand. Message to the media: we Americans are smarter than you think.

One final caveat to ponder is that roughly one million of the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust were Ukranian Jews. So maybe it’s not solely the peace-loving, hand-holding, tolerant country that the US and some world media have made it out to be.

I for one hope the war ends soon with a negotiated settlement that is amenable to both sides. No one wants more bloodshed.

In the meantime, let’s try and maintain a hint of skepticism when we follow mainstream media conflict of the war. Because what you see on your TV or the Internet may not be what’s really happening on the ground 5,000 miles away.