Posted on 01/11/2018 11:36:08 AM PST by Navy Patriot
Cohen returns to a subject he has treated repeatedly since the 1990s, mainstream media malpractice in covering Russia, ...
There have been three relevant major episodes of such malpractice. The first was when American newspapers, particularly The New York Times, misled readers into thinking the Communists could not possibly win the Russian Revolution ...
(The second) ... virtually the entire mainstream America print and broadcast media covered the US-backed “reforms” of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, which plundered and immiserated the Russian people, as a benevolent “transition to democracy and capitalism” and to “the kind of Russia we want.”
... The third and current episode grew out of the second but spread quickly through the media in the early 2000s with the demonization of Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin’s successor, and now is amply evidenced by mainstream coverage of the new Cold War, Russiagate’s allegation that “Russia attacked American democracy” in 2016, and much else related to Russia. This rendition may be the worst, certainly it is the most dangerous.
Media malpractice has various elements—among them, selective use of facts, some unverified, highly questionable narratives or reporting based on those “facts,” mingled with editorial commentary passed off as “analysis,” buttressed by carefully selected “expert sources,” often anonymous, and amplified by carefully chosen opinion page contributors. Throughout is the systematic practice of excluding developments (and opinion) that do not conform to the Times’ venerable motto, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” When it comes to Russia, the Times often decides politically what is fit and what is not. And thus the most recent but exceedingly important example.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
It’s telling the Nation leaves out the mis-reporting of Soviet human rights abuses in this screed.
Ping, you’re gonna hate this.
Does Cohen always refer to himself in the third person?
Stephen Cohen works for Putin and before him the Communists controlling Russia.
I like listening to SFC on John Batch. Although it gets a little much.
The US has a long history of going back on many, many agreements with the Russians and being frankly cavalier about Russian sensibilities. I do not say that as a justification for Russia invading countries.
But as SFC says, in the wake of the collapse of the USSR, the US (and NATO) set out to gather as many countries into NATO as possible and it was (to my understanding) kind of a smash and grab operation. You can say what you want but it’s not exactly sensitive to push NATO armies and missiles right up to Russias’ borders. They have a little experience with this, one in which they lost about 25 MM people.
You are correct that The New York Times, the newspaper of record during the Soviet era, could nary find a fault with Lenin or Stalin including Beria's murders and Stalin's Genocide of Russians and Ukrainians (among others), as The Nation is Leftist and enamored with Socialism, American or Foreign.
However, the information on Media Malpractice and the names named are accurate.
Cohen produced this in three parts over a decade, and this is the third part just now released.
An editorial introduction brings the reader up to speed, so I edited it as much as I could to get to the meat (described in the title) before ya got talked to death.
Ever since Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton, began the still ongoing process of NATO expansion, its promoters and apologists have repeatedly insisted there was no such promise, that it had all been “myth” or “misunderstanding,” and moreover that NATO’s vast expansion had been necessary and has been a great success, actual myths that Cohen also discusses.
Of course, he's published in The Nation.
I would add one more journalistic abuse. That would be in the 1930s when Stalin was at his bloody worst. That’s when the US newspapers adored the USSR.
That is probably the biggest sign that Putin isn’t quite the despot they say he is. If he was anywhere close to that level of evil, the NYT and MSM would adore him. Just like they adore Che, Mao, Mugabe, Morsi, Hugo Chavez, Fidel, Merkel, Macron, May, etc.
You nailed THAT. The press and the left in general was a willing handmaiden during the Soviet mass murder era. They conveniently forget that.
You are absolutely correct.
Dirtboy touched on this and I acknowleged it in post #7.
Sorry, not interested in joining the Pom-Poms for Putin cheer squad, which is primarily what this column is about.
I can't explain that unless the entire article is editorial comment.
It made the entire article difficult for me to read.
WayneS is deeply disturbed by people who refer to themselves in the third person...
;-)
Russia has no debts to the IMF or World Bank. That explains much.
I agree, editing to post it was as much of a pain.
It pretty much explains everything, ... about the Russophobes.
US media is often clueless not just with Russia but covering foreign events, foreign religions and cultures in general. Most journalists covering the Middle East I venture have never even picked up a Koran or a Bible or Talmud in their lives.
It is very rare to read thoughtful pieces in BOTH American and Russian publications, about why Soviet communism was and is so hard to break free from: not as an economic system, but as a moral and spiritual ideology implanted in people’s souls from birth.
RUSSIAN media is ridiculous when it claims the country bore no responsibility for the 90s and its other current commiserations! Are you freakin kidding me?
For all the dumb Western “reformers” there were (along side dumb Soviet ones: like Gaidar who was utterly clueless about how capitalism can be absorbed and implemented) — Russia as a whole ultimately benefitted and continues to benefit from being an open country. Its business culture especially is reliant upon Western influence to improve.
Also a lot of the social ills facing Russia on a major scale: mortality from alcoholism, Soviet abortion culture — all benefit from Western Christian methods of rehabilitation, counseling, care, pro-life activism etc...
And now the country faces an unprecedented HIV epidemic! But the Russian govt is still in denial. As are those infected who believe the disease is a Western conspiracy...
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