[Peace-discuss] NYT Dishes More Ukraine Propaganda

Wed Jul 9 21:44:29 EDT 2014

  NYT Dishes More Ukraine Propaganda

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Educate! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> Foreign 
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Times <http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/new-york-times/>, Russia 
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<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/ukraine/>
By Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/06/nyt-dishes-more-ukraine-propaganda/>
July 8th, 2014
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/Sen. John McCain appearing with Ukrainian rightists at a pre-coup rally 
in Kiev./

*Exclusive: *The mainstream U.S. media continues to sell the American 
people a one-sided storyline on the Ukraine crisis as the Kiev regime 
celebrates a key military victory at Slovyansk, an eastern city at the 
center of ethnic Russian resistance to last February's violent coup that 
ousted elected President Yanukovych, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

As you read or watch the mainstream U.S. media's accounts of the 
Ukrainian government's military offensive against ethnic Russians in 
East Ukraine, it's worth remembering that these MSM outlets have been 
feeding Americans a highly biased narrative of the crisis non-stop from 
the beginning.

For instance, New York Times correspondent David M. Herszenhorn included 
in a largely celebratory account 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/europe/ukraine-and-rebels-clash-in-slovyansk.html?ref=world> 
of the Ukrainian blitzkrieg that overwhelmed ethnic Russian positions in 
the town of Slovyansk on Saturday this summary of the conflict's background:

"The separatist rebellion is the latest, bloodiest chapter in a crisis 
that began in November after Viktor F. Yanukovych, then Ukraine's 
president, rejected a trade accord he had promised to sign with the 
European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. Protesters took to 
the streets of Kiev, eventually driving Mr. Yanukovych from office. 
Within a week, Russia invaded Crimea, then annexed the peninsula."

Herszenhorn, like nearly all his MSM colleagues, simply can't find it 
within himself to display the journalistic integrity needed to present 
an evenhanded and unbiased explication of how this crisis unfolded. 
Instead, it's all about blaming Ukraine's elected President Yanukovych 
and Russian President Vladimir Putin for everything.

Always absent is the fact that the EU's trade accord came with a 
draconian International Monetary Fund austerity plan attached, a 
prescription to inflict even more pain on the people of Ukraine who have 
suffered under a post-Soviet economic system dominated by a handful of 
corrupt oligarchs. The IMF plan would have simply hit the average 
Ukrainian even harder --- with elimination of heating subsidies and 
devaluation of their currency -- while the Ukrainian oligarchs and their 
Western financial backers would have escaped the pain, as usual. In 
rejecting the IMF scheme, Yanukovych opted for a more generous $15 
billion loan deal from Moscow.

*Blind to the Neo-Nazis*

Herszenhorn's narrative also excludes the key role of neo-Nazi militias 
that were organized in 100-man units to serve as the tip of the spear in 
the Feb. 22 coup that drove Yanukovych and his government from power. In 
recognition of their key role in the coup, the neo-Nazis were awarded 
several ministries in the new government, including the office of 
national security.

Then, there is the cherished MSM tale of the Russian "invasion" of 
Crimea, which -- unlike every other "invasion" in history -- did not 
involve military forces crossing an international border. Russian troops 
were already stationed in Crimea under an agreement with Ukraine's 
government. And, the impetus for Crimea's secession from Ukraine and 
rejoining Russia came from the local government and the Crimean people, 
not from Russian military force. But repetition of the words "invasion" 
and "annexation" is needed to elicit the desired revulsion from the 
American people.

It's also never noted that after the Feb. 22 coup, the new regime 
dutifully approved the harsh IMF austerity plan that even Prime Minister 
Arseniy Yatsenyuk -- the new leader hand-picked by U.S. Assistant 
Secretary of State Victoria Nuland -- acknowledged was "very unpopular, 
very difficult, very tough."

All in all, the Ukraine case has been a curious example of U.S.--backed 
"democracy promotion" -- overthrowing a democratically elected leader so 
a coup regime could impose a "very unpopular" austerity plan on an 
already suffering population. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com's 
"Ukrainians Get IMF's Bitter Medicine 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/02/ukrainians-get-imfs-bitter-medicine/>."]

*Among the Worst*

The Times' Herszenhorn has been among the most biased of a long list of 
biased MSM correspondents who have enforced the false narrative about 
Ukraine. Indeed, the oppressive "group think" -- blending State 
Department propaganda with its amen chorus of the MSM -- has made 
formulating any rational policy toward Russia and Ukraine politically 
impossible in Official Washington.

It seems that the safe career play is always to go for the most extreme 
examples of Russian perfidy. For instance, in mid-April, the Times 
published a front-page story 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/world/europe/russia-is-quick-to-bend-truth-about-ukraine.html?hp&_r=0> 
by Herszenhorn excoriating Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev for 
engaging in clumsy propaganda.

In the article entitled "Russia Is Quick To Bend Truth About Ukraine," 
Herszenhorn mocked Medvedev for making a Facebook posting that "was 
bleak and full of dread," including noting that "blood has been spilled 
in Ukraine again" and adding that "the threat of civil war looms."

The Times article continued, "He [Medvedev] pleaded with Ukrainians to 
decide their own future 'without usurpers, nationalists and bandits, 
without tanks or armored vehicles -- and without secret visits by the 
C.I.A. director.' And so began another day of bluster and hyperbole, of 
the misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated 
rhetoric and, occasionally, outright lies about the political crisis in 
Ukraine that have emanated from the highest echelons of the Kremlin and 
reverberated on state-controlled Russian television, hour after hour, 
day after day, week after week."

This argumentative "news" story spilled from the front page to the top 
half of an inside page, but Herszenhorn never managed to mention that 
there was nothing false in what Medvedev wrote. Indeed, as the bloodshed 
has grown worse and a civil war has become obvious, you might say 
Medvedev was tragically prescient.

It was also the much-maligned Russian press that first reported the 
secret visit of CIA Director John Brennan to Kiev. Though the White 
House later confirmed 
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/04/14/obama-john-brennan-kiev-russia-ukraine-jay-carney/7705755/> 
that report, Herszenhorn cited Medvedev's reference to it in the context 
of "misinformation" and "conspiracy theories." Nowhere in the long 
article did the Times inform its readers that, yes, the CIA director did 
make a secret visit to Ukraine.

Now, as the Kiev regime celebrates its bloody conquest of the eastern 
Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, it might be advisable for Americans who 
don't want to continue being deceived by U.S. government/media 
propaganda to recognize -- and reject -- these one-sided and false 
narratives. [For more details, see Consortiumnews.com's "Ukraine, Though 
the US 'Looking Glass' 
<http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/16/ukraine-through-the-us-looking-glass/>" 
or The Nation's "The Silence of America's Hawks About Kiev's Atrocities. 
<http://www.thenation.com/article/180466/silence-american-hawks-about-kievs-atrocities>"]

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