View from Washington: Does the media bear some responsibility for lives lost in Ukraine?

In a nation and a world crying out for honest, non-biased investigative journalism, we are often getting “reporting” that either supports an ideology or political party, or continually attacks and smears people who hold different views. Goodbye independent reporting, and hello state-sanctioned propaganda, writes Douglas MacKinnon, a former White House and Pentagon official, at ‘The Hill’.

Do you remember reading or hearing about that on your preferred news site? No? What you have heard mostly — especially from the media in the U.S. and the U.K. — is: “As Ukraine just reported…as Zelensky just told us…”

Since the beginning of the war, far too many journalists and news sites have come across as cheerleaders for Ukraine. My question to them: Is that unprofessional activism helping the people of Ukraine — or, in reality, unintentionally delaying a cease-fire that would save countless lives and valuable infrastructure?

The two most disturbing of those consequences are that the governments of the U.S., the UK and other nations are seemingly using Ukraine and its men, women and children as cheap disposable pawns to be sacrificed in a proxy war against Putin and Russia. The second is that the continuation of this increasingly unpredictable war is leading us to the razor’s edge of World War III.

Here are some examples of questions our independent and professional media should be asking.

Is Ukraine being used to fight such a proxy war? Are defense contractors in the U.S. and Europe using the war to test out new weapons systems while reaping tens of billions in profits? How many Ukrainians have actually been killed or wounded in the war? How many civilians? How many have fled the nation?

Next, are any of the officials in Ukraine corrupt?

There was a great deal of reporting on that subject before the war, but there has been precious little since. On that subject, what is the true accounting of the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars sent into that nation? How much as been stolen and by who? With the continual demonization of Russia and its people, are we pushing that nation deeper into the arms of China, Iran and North Korea?

To my concern that much of the media has abandoned its objectivity and professionalism when it comes to this war, I recently reached out to an editor at a major news site in Europe to ask about submitting a column raising some of these questions. I was told it would be a waste of time. I pushed back saying that it was an opinion piece for their opinion section. The answer I got back was that their “unofficial” position was that they were strongly opposed to Putin and Russia and would not entertain pieces that might put Ukraine or the prosecution of the war in a negative light.

Call that whatever you want, but it is not honest and ethical journalism, Douglas MacKinnon stresses.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs