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Putin’s Propaganda on CNN?
I checked CNN this morning and was dumbfounded to see that on December 9, they ran Russian Ministry of Defense propaganda video — proudly marked “Russian Ministry of Defense” as news. Please watch that video and tell me how on earth that happened.
Two days ago, CNN reported that they’d been given “rare access” to the “the Moskva, a Russian warship laden with long-range guided missiles.”
Of course they gave CNN “rare access,” particularly since CNN then uncritically reported their propaganda:
Several miles off the Syrian coast, the Moskva, a Russian warship laden with long-range guided missiles, is a formidable symbol of Russian naval might in this stretch of the eastern Mediterranean.
I’ve been given rare access on board this 11,500-ton, 186-meter (610-foot) missile cruiser to witness the key role it plays in Russia’s air war against jihadist rebels in Syria’s grinding civil war.
Equipped with a powerful air defense system, the Moskva has been situated off the Syrian city of Latakia to provide support to the Russian warplanes crisscrossing Syrian skies in an unrelenting schedule of sorties from the Hmeymim air base.
In the two days I’ve been touring the Russian military operations in Syria, their jets have flown more than 100 sorties, destroyed 287 rebel strongholds and 40 oil installations, and killed more than 400 rebels, the Russian Defense Ministry says.
That’s a remarkably odd way to report that Russia has grounded the US military, wouldn’t you say?
Russia’s military operations inside Syria have been expanding in recent weeks, and the latest Russian deployments, made without any advance notice to the U.S., have disrupted the U.S.-led coalition’s efforts to support Syrian rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State near the Turkey-Syria border, just west of the Euphrates River, several Obama administration and U.S. defense officials told us. This crucial part of the battlefield, known inside the military as Box 4, is where a number of groups have been fighting the Islamic State for control, until recently with overhead support from U.S. fighter jets.
But earlier this month, Moscow deployed an SA-17 advanced air defense system near the area and began “painting” U.S. planes, targeting them with radar in what U.S. officials said was a direct and dangerous provocation. The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area. Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting. (U.S. manned airstrikes continue elsewhere in Syria.)
We have a free press. If CNN wants to help Putin economize on propaganda, so be it. I find it disgusting, but so be it.
Published in Foreign Policy
Wow.
Good piece by Leon Arun here. We have CNN running their propaganda, and a significant portion of the GOP — formerly the party of Ronald Reagan — backing a man one couldn’t even fairly call a Putin apologist, because he seems to have no idea who Putin is.
Claire,
Why grab Crimea? Why sail the Moskva into the eastern Mediterranean? You can easily understand tactics once you know the strategy. Of course, if you are any good you can induct the strategy from seeing the tactics.
The moment they grabbed Crimea I knew what was coming. Where is the Sixth Fleet? Not just Israel should be asking. Greece and Turkey ought to know better than to trust this revanchist.
Regards,
Jim
To say that they don’t, at this point, would be an understatement. Russia is Turkey’s primordial fear — and Putin’s put such a scare into them that they’ve reconciled with Israel, which is a mildly bright light in this. But that should suggest how terrified they are.