Now ‘like ISIS’, according to our propaganda outlets

 

 

So now we know: Russia – really really bad, Putin – even badder. That’s what we’re told to believe by the western MSM. One only needs to look at this morning’s compilation of the print editions headlines (link). After all, how bad must a president be when a British paper can compare him to ISIS? 

There’s one other news item which is either really bad or not: there were elections yesterday in Hungary, and Viktor Orban won with a handsome majority of 53% of the votes, criticising the EU and Messrs Soros and ‘e in his victory speech (link).

Back to the ‘really bad’ news. This is about ‘the massacre in Bucha’. Our MSM’ reported on this ‘massacre’ with one voice, so it must be true. After all, “we” don’t believe a word any Russian source says or writes. Better use ‘Reuters’ as a proper source where the ‘massacre’ stories were piling up (e.g. here) since yesterday night.

Furthermore, our fine broadsheets are shamelessly publishing horror stories from ‘Ukrainian villagers’, e.g. “Ukrainian mother raped by Russian soldier as she sheltered in school” (paywalled link). So let’s ‘celebrate’ the ‘news’ that brave Ukrainian villagers have ‘killed two Russian soldiers with poisoned pies’, according to The Times (link, paywalled).

Perish the thought that these might be just more propaganda pieces released by the Ukrainian government. At least there’s a shameful little note deep inside the Times article that these stories haven’t been verified. But then again – if ‘news’ come from the Ukrainian government they don’t need to be verified, correct? And the tweet by the mayor of the Ukrainian city Dnepr, telling people to ‘kill Russians all over the world’ (link) is fine and of course not a call for genocide …

Meanwhile, some impartial observers point out that this ‘massacre’ is fake news. See for example this article written by the former Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar. He quotes TASS, so let’s go there and see for ourselves. We find for example that the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ms Zakharova, has pointed out two things. Firstly, that the Russian defence ministry reported that:

“[…] all Russian troops had left the city of Bucha in the Kiev region as far back as March 30 while “evidence of crimes” surfaced four days later, when Ukrainian Security Council officers arrived in the city. According to the Russian defense ministry, Bucha’s mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said in his video address on March 31 that there were no Russian troops in the city. He did not even mention about any people who were shot dead in the streets with their hands tied.” (link)

Well, let’s be fair and assume that this mayor didn’t have time to go and check for all those victims – not least because Ukrainian forces kept shelling that town, something not mentioned in the western press. More on that below. Next Ms Zakharova observed:

“I think that the very fact that these statements [in the western MSM] were made minutes after these materials were released leaves no doubts as for who has contracted this story,” […] According to Zakharova, the West’s political statements came literally immediately after the materials were released, with no analysis of the situation. “There is one thing that is to be taken into account. Heads of state, foreign ministers, public figures, by the way, former politicians came out with their statements only based on the videos, seconds-long videos and several photos.” (link)

This is a point made as well by a number of western analysts and journalists, for example here, describing the videos and photos as ‘context~ and evidence~free’. Moreover, the fact that Russia has demanded a special session of the UN Security Council to investigate these allegations hasn’t made it into our MSM, as far as I could see.

RT (hiss-boo) has the story here. If accusations like ‘war crimes’ and ‘genocide’ are being bandied about by Ukrainian government representatives, from Mr ‘e to his foreign secretary, then they must surely be able to provide proper forensic evidence, correct?

There’s also the shelling of Bucha by the Ukrainian military – something not mentioned in the western MSM, as the Russian ambassador in Washington pointed out. Reiterating the statement by the Russian defence Ministry, that Russian troops had left that town on March 30th, he said:

“I would like to point out that Russian troops left Bucha on March 30. The Ukrainian authorities remained silent all these days, and now they have suddenly posted sensational footage in order to tarnish Russia’s image and make Russia defend itself,” Antonov said. “I would like to emphasize with full responsibility that not a single civilian suffered from violence when the town was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces.” (link)

Forgive the somewhat stumbling English – this is a machine translation. There are furthermore reports in the twittersphere that the Ukrainian ‘KGB” enters the town and combed through it – for ‘Russian collaborators’, one assumes. Time enough, one would think, to produce the corpses needed for these videos.

I’ll round up the reports on the Bucha massacre with two comments by two American journalists, as reported by TASS. Our MSM of course shun and disregard those observations even though they were made on twitter – a ‘news source’ greedily harvested by our ‘journalists’, a ‘news source’ which is known to remove inconvenient tweets and close accounts of those criticising the ‘western narrative’. Firstly, here’s Scott Ritter, quoted at length from TASS:

“Anyone who makes knee jerk judgements from unverified videos sourced from a side known for wild propagandistic claims without waiting for verification of any kind should probably stop calling themselves journalists,” he pointed out, commenting on US media reports of civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops. “Basic medical forensics would answer three key questions: the time of death, the mechanism of death, and if the bodies had been moved. Let’s see if the Ukrainians provide verifiable medical forensic data to sustain their accusations,” […] “The time of death. The mechanism of death. The location of death. Answer these three questions for each body. Then start pointing fingers. Until then, you’re literally spreading disinformation,” the former UN weapons inspector noted.” (link)

Another journalist observed that Kiev is using the ‘massacre news’ to lobby for more military engagement by the USA:

“WASHINGTON, April 4. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are lobbying for US military intervention by posting videos from the town of Bucha, while US media outlets are presenting it as verified fact, American journalist and political commentator Michael Tracey wrote on Twitter. “For weeks, US media has been happy to take photos/video/claims produced by Ukraine government officials and present it as verified fact. They’ve abandoned all journalistic standards to assist the propaganda efforts of a foreign government openly lobbying for US military action,” (link)

Isn’t it wonderful how “The Fog of War” means that our MSM are apparently incapable to report from the Russian side while everything that comes from the Ukraine is as clear as the day and can be reported, unverified.

Never mind that these turn out to be ‘fake news’ a few days later. Never mind the failure of western journalists to do their job properly.  Never mind that western MSM are blatantly spreading disinformation and propaganda. Anything is welcome, it seems, when it can be utilised to justify more ‘lethal aid’ going to the Ukraine, when it can be used to declare that ‘Putin is ISIS’.

It boils down to the old question of whom to believe – the fabulous MSM or our own eyes. After our experience of the covid years, the choice shouldn’t be difficult!

 

 

 

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