Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
March 17, 2022
By Joni Ashbrook
Ukrainians are not only fighting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, barbaric war, but also a war on the truth about the hell they are living through.
Many Russians staunchly believe the Kremlin’s lie that they are on a “special military operation” with the honorable mission of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine instead of believing members of their own family relaying war crimes happening right before their eyes.
One Ukrainian woman, Valentyna Kremyr, said she sent photos from trusted media sites of mangled tanks and destroyed buildings to her brother in Russia and he replied, “This is fake news,” and he said the Ukrainian Army caused the damage to blame Russians.
Are Russians simpletons? Nyet. Putin has fed them a steady diet of disinformation for decades, and he recently shut down any remnants of a free press.
Putin got help selling his war to the Russian people from Fox News host Tucker Carlson who frequently pushes pro-Russian propaganda. Russian state TV often shows clips of Comrade Carlson’s rants.
For example, Comrade Carlson’s Feb. 17 show was translated into Russian so he could be understood trashing U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine as “ghoulish” and saying “Of course they’re promoting war.”
Disinformation is false information intended to mislead and it is why Russians and Ukrainians whose lives are so closely intertwined subscribe to different realities. It’s also why Americans live in alternate universes.
Kremyr’s story was reported by the New York Times, media that former President Donald Trump calls “fake news.” The Kremlin also called the bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine that left three dead, including a child, “fake news.”
According to Vox’s interview with Yale historian Timothy Snyder who wrote “The Road to Unfreedom,” the phrase “fake news” was coined in Russia and used as part of a strategy to disorient their citizens and later to destabilize Western nations.
Their strategy is to flood the internet and TV with misinformation, demonize institutions charged with uncovering the facts, then exploit the confusion. Russia is masterful at information warfare and they use it to turn people against each other.
Right wing media, especially Fox News, saturated the airwaves with disinformation that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, which helped motivate Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to overturn the election.
Comrade Carlson spewed outrageous conspiracy theories in his film “Patriot Purge” that the violence on Jan.6 was an inside job by the government and left-wing activists.
The effect of Trump demonizing the media was seen on Jan. 6 when his supporters threatened journalists’ lives.
Associated Press photographer John Minchillo was pulled down a flight of stairs and shoved over a ledge as a Trump supporter shouted, “We’ll f—ing kill you!”
Richard Hall, a British newspaper reporter, posted a picture of destroyed camera equipment and tweeted, “Today was the first day I’ve felt uncomfortable identifying myself as a journalist in America.”
According to website FiveThirtyEight, Republicans take the attack on our democracy on Jan. 6 less seriously than other Americans.
Half of Republicans polled thought the rioters were primarily “peaceful” and “law abiding,” and 41% believed that “most of those who forced their way into the Capitol were left-leaning groups pretending to be Trump supporters.”
Shockingly, 34% of adults said violence against the government was sometimes justified. That’s up from only 9% in 1995.
Snyder thinks the great triumph of Russian foreign policy in the 21st century is its ability to create chaos in Western democracies using the tools it perfected on its own citizens.
Ashbrook is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. She is a retired school teacher and may be reached at [email protected].
