If all you know about Vladimir Putin is what you learned from Bob Costas during NBC’s Olympic coverage Thursday night, you might be excused for thinking the Russian autocrat is a great peacemaker on the world stage. Costas ran a video montage to bring viewers up to speed on the Russian president as the Olympic Winter Games began in Sochi, Russia. For a minute, NBC looked an awful lot like a Russian propaganda network — at least in how it portrayed Putin as a leader in the international arena. “Just in the past year, Putin brokered a deal to allow...