Ever since the situation in Ukraine began to blow up (again), I’ve been trying to figure out what’s really been going on. It hasn’t been easy. And the U.S. corporate media has not been particularly helpful (again).
My attempt to sort out fact from fiction after last weekend’s ‘97.6%’ referendum vote in Crimea is just one example of finding the facts running counter to the U.S. MSM narrative.
We pick up that thread on this week’s KPFK/Pacifica Radio BradCast, as I was joined by investigative reporter Robert Parry of ConsortiumNews.com to try and sort much of it out. His must-read article, “Mainstream US Media Is Lost in Ukraine”, tying together blatant media failures on Iraq and Syria and now in Ukraine, begins to crack the nut of what the U.S. media is failing to tell us about the entire fine mess, including some startling audio evidence that we play on the show suggesting that certain narratives — for example, the one about now former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych’s police gunning down protesters — may be much less (or, at least, much different) than has been generally reported in this country.
Parry explains how “The U.S. mainstream news media is reaching a new professional low point as it covers the Ukraine crisis by brazenly touting Official Washington’s propaganda themes, blatantly ignoring contrary facts and leading the American public into another geopolitical blind alley.”
You’ll want to hear this conversation.
In the back half of the show…we cover The BRAD BLOG’s exclusive this week on a great new gift for election hackers — just in time for the 2014 mid-terms!; the one WI Republican state Senator willing to stand up against Gov. Scott Walker’s voter suppression; Sen. Whitehouse’s theory on Citizens United and climate change denial; and, of course, Desi Doyen joins us with the latest Green News Report, as usual.
Buckle up!
The MSM is catapulting the propaganda.
Last night Chris Hayes had Lawrence Wilkerson on as well as someone representing some American Ukrainian group or something. The guy from the Ukraine group seemed to be towing the U.S. propaganda line while Wilkerson, as usual, was making sense and providing crucial(and generally neglected) context.
The night before Hayes had on Professor Stephen F. Cohen. It was four or five minutes of pretty incredible TV. Professor Cohen actually was giving a fair representation of the other side’s thinking.
Among other things Cohen said something like–You need to examine what Putin is saying to see if there is any truth to it, or decide you’re going to dismiss it just because it’s Putin saying it. He went on to explain the sense of Putin’s point of view, prefacing that doing so gets him branded a Putin apologist.
I give Chris Hayes credit for having them on. At the same time he looked rather uncomfortable with Cohen and Wilkerson’s interpretations, which depart radically from the our government’s(and the MSM’s) narrative.
Thanks for this post, Brad!!!
David –
Yes, Stephen Cohen (Katrina Vandenheuvel’s husband, coincidentally) has been excellent on this from Day 1. Had tried to get him on The BradCast a couple of weeks ago, but he wasn’t available.
And, yes, credit to Chris for having him on. Will have to go back and check it out. It’s rather amazing how the bulk of the stuff we covered on BradCast hasn’t appeared at all on most of the MSM, including MSNBC. By and large, it’s just been the straight DC narrative as you noted.
Hope ya’ll enjoy the interview here. I’m glad we were able to do it.
Here are articles by two guys Wilkerson mentioned last night, Gordon Adams and John Mearsheimer, elaborating on the point of view Wilkerson and Cohen offered.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ar...n_bear_ukraine
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/...ine-wrong.html
Great score on the interview, Brad! And yeah, you’d think that little phone call excerpt would be slightly newsworthy.
I hope you will allow me to caution you not to be too jaded on the Ukraine Story.
Yes, this is complicated and comes in shades of grey. We don’t want to go to war, probably shouldn’t allow that the Ukraine have nuclear weapons (Ya think?), we understand the extremes of two of the leaders. Yet, please don’t forget the reality of history in the area.
My grandmother came to the US by herself when she was 13 years of age, as did many Eastern Europeans fleeing the effects of Russian invasion. Her family sent her, she lost contact with them, never heard from them again. We later learned her village was “relocated”, a euphonious term. These people were forced on trains and most died.
We see this continued extremism by Russia now. We are foolish to ignore a consideration of corporate interests. At the same time, don’t ignore the realities of history of a repressive regime and it’s impact on real families like mine and countless other Americans living here now. The risk is the same, there in Europe now. The Russians fly over Norway daily as we speak. Don’t forget about Estonia and others as well.
Don’t forget about Estonia, Russia is calling for it again now. Thanks for considering.
Denise Boer said @ 6:
Yup. My great grandmother did something similar. She fled to the U.S. from Ukraine. So, no, I haven’t forgotten.
THANK YOU BRAD!!!!So the part of Ukraine that joins the EU will get a big fat “loan” from the IMF – international monetary fund. This basically is like borrowing from a loan shark.
In return, the Ukraine that joins EU will get AUSTERITY, pensions cut in half, infrastructures sold off to western corporations,and the LOAN will not go to help Ukrainians. Cargil, Monstanto, Chevron, Eli Lilly and others are ready to move in and take over. And follow the trail to neo cons and PNAC as well.
This never was about democracy any more than say our destruction of Iraq or Afghanistan was. Or our attempt to start a war in Syria.
I take no joy in saying it, Joyce, but I think you’re connecting the important dots. I’d love you to be wrong, but I don’t know that you are.