How pro-Kremlin propagandists create a distorted reality
The most important feature of high-quality journalism is objectivity, an unbiased and accurate view of a certain event. The media should cover the events, but leave the possibility for the reader to draw his/her own conclusions, remaining independent. Of course, it implies ideal conditions respectable mass media strive for.
Instead, pro-Russian “journalists” act differently. Propagandists create their own, distorted version of reality in accordance with the orders of curators from the Kremlin special services. Like a blurred mirror, they reflect only the facts they need, removing what does not fit into their “party policy” and vice versa, focusing on what they need.
One of the recent trends is the coverage of the details of the artillery strikes of the Ukrainian forces on important positions of the occupiers. After the US-provided HIMARS began operating at the front, such strikes on ammunition and fuel storage facilities occur almost every day. In turn, “journalists” from the Russian Federation and local propagandists of the “DPR/LPR” repeat the same words as one. They say that “heartless Ukrainians once again hit the warehouses with humanitarian aid», notwithstanding a lot of videos from local residents on the network, which clearly show the detonation of ammunition. Some daredevils even take close-up photos of affected objects, as it happened recently with the KAMAZ Center in temporarily occupied Donetsk. The authors of the video clearly showed the scattered remnants of mines and shells.
But in just a few hours, after cleaning up the evidence, Russian bloggers arrived at the facility and showed a completely different picture, without mentioning a single word what was actually on its territory.
The “journalists” are also silent about why the “peace-loving” government of the “DPR/LPR” cares so much about its citizens that it places ammunition and fuel warehouses right in residential areas. In fact, local residents are being used as human shields for military facilities, and it is a war crime. Now every inhabitant of the occupied territories may suffer from the detonation of “stew and diapers” near his/her house.
Unfortunately, there are even worse examples of the “work” of propagandists, who are ready to do any provocation for the sake of a beautiful picture. It relates mainly to “journalists” from the Russian Federation, who have no one to feel sorry for in the occupied territories and nothing to lose. So, for the sake of a beautiful picture, propagandists can organize shelling of residential areas. Moreover, as in cases with storage facilities, the locals themselves determine very accurately where exactly the shelling came from.
Or they simulate “fierce battles” at the command of the next “war correspondent”.
However, there is a certain benefit from these “reporters”. They provide evidence of war crimes. Thanks to their stories, it is possible to establish the geolocation of the affected houses and the direction of the shelling.
However, not only citizens of the Russian Federation engage in pro-Russian propaganda and distortion of facts. Unfortunately, there are also enough fans of the regime of Vladimir Putin in Western countries, who are ready to spread fakes. Some of them do it for money, some for ideological reasons, and others just blindly believe Kiselyov and Solovyov. Of course, Western democracies embrace freedom of speech and the free press, that is why such useful idiots mostly avoid responsibility. However, even citizens of Western democracies are slowly beginning to understand the true intentions of these “friends of the Kremlin”. The question of the involvement of journalists John Mark Dougan and Eva Bartlett was recently raised in the investigation carried out by the Canadian television and radio company CBC.
The authors of the investigation note that a whole group of Western journalists, who have a long history of spreading Russian propaganda, are now trying to promote a narrative about alleged involvement of Ukraine in war crimes. According to these Kremlin mouthpieces, it was the fictional Ukrainian neo-Nazis, who killed the peaceful inhabitants of Bucha, Borodyanka, and Irpin. By a strange coincidence, one such author, John Mark Dougan, managed to do a lot of stupid things at home, namely, to create a large number of false articles, for which he was wanted by the FBI. Dougan fled to Moscow to avoid responsibility in the Motherland and now openly supports Russian aggression against Ukraine. He is even one of the members of the so-called International Public Tribunal for Ukraine, a puppet organization created by the Kremlin to “investigate” the war crimes of the “Ukrainian Nazis”.
Eva Bartlett, who also participates in this Tribunal, also managed to help the Kremlin. She talked about the horrors of the war in Syria for the RT channel, exclusively from the Russian side, denying the chemical attacks of the Assad regime. After that, she also moved to Moscow, from where she talks about the fact that the Western press “brainwashes” its viewer. She also calls to support the actions of the Russian authorities.
Therefore, the Kremlin very actively engages “journalists” to conduct propaganda actions and at the same time focuses not only on its own audience, but also on Western countries. Therefore, Russian informational and psychological campaigns cannot be considered a threat only to Ukraine, that is why the whole world should unite to combat them.
