UKRAINE SHORT COMMENTARY: WHO EXACTLY IS MISINFORMING WHO THESE DAYS?

There is a constant flurry of criticism of Putin and the Russian operation in Ukraine which has built upon at least 15 years of similar material building layer upon layer of acceptance for the messages being conveyed. The articles containing such criticisms are not simple diatribes but appear to be cogent analyses of all that has transpired.

These articles have a convincing quality to them in most cases, they are not composed of mere polemical attacks, their authors present what they deem evidence and from this “evidence” they draw conclusions which sound logical in the context of the facts as they present them.

My considered view is that the “evidence” used is not only highly selective but also highly dubious. It is clear that only a one-sided interpretation will ever be espoused and that interpretation is well known to the activists on the ground in Ukraine and so the information feed supplies ever more info-fodder on that basis.

What is then formed over time is a picture of how things are based on a certain requirement all down the line. That picture does not represent reality but rather the required “reality” by all involved down this chain of self-interest headed at its apex by the needs and geopolitical self-interest of western state elites.

Pundits, commentators and so-called journalists speak of and to this picture of reality which they hold constantly before their eyes. Myriad reasons not to speak of anything else but this self-created mirage exist in abundance.

To speak against the agreed picture is known to bring instant negatives to the speaker unless the author is of a select number of independent, fearless and otherwise invulnerable position. Lowly text-turners who exist on a bit and piece income delivered to them only if they mirror the required narratives and talking points or those who tentatively exist with the great corporate or state-financed news outlets of the West certainly know what is required of them… or else.

Or else they end up on the street, unemployable as they have been branded as unreliable in some way or another, of ruined reputation at the least and either a spoken or inferred criticism regarding not being a team player or worse still infected by Russian propaganda. When in war mode, it is expected that mass media assists in the demonization process of “the enemy”. Those who naively or recklessly talk for “the enemy” in even the most modest terms will be crucified on the cross of ‘misinformation’ by the very source of ACTUAL western misinformation, this being one of the many sad ironies of war.