This is not just brazen journalistic malpractice, this is actual atrocity propaganda.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
A Ukrainian government official frequently cited as a source by western news media for her allegations of atrocities committed by Russian troops has been fired by the Ukrainian parliament, in part because of the unevidenced nature of those claims.
Newsweek reports:
“A Ukrainian official has been relieved of her duties over her handling of reports detailing sexual assault allegations made against Russians in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, removed Lyudmila Denisova, the parliament’s commissioner for human rights, from her post, according to Ukrainska Pravda. No new appointment has been made to fill the role.
The move to dismiss Denisova came after outrage about the wording used in public reports about alleged sexual assaults committed by Russians, as well as the alleged dissemination in those reports of unverified information. Despite accusations from Ukraine, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied that Russian soldiers have committed war crimes or sexual assaults during the invasion.”
As it happens, Newsweek is one of the many western outlets who have uncritically cited Denisova’s unevidenced claims in their reporting of events in Ukraine. She was the “Ukraine official” in Newsweek’s incendiary April headline “Russians Raped 11-Year-Old Boy, Forced Mom to Watch: Ukraine Official,” an article whose entire first half featured unevidenced claims by Denisova.
"The racist occupiers must bear the strictest responsibility!" said Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, of Russian soldiers. https://t.co/ObN7cDbEJv
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 8, 2022
A Ukrainian official has been relieved of her duties over her handling of reports detailing sexual assault allegations made against Russians in Ukraine.
Read more: https://t.co/BL0tdUH8Jo pic.twitter.com/kjIaRNwURe
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 31, 2022
Denisova’s name featured just the other day in my own critique of the western media’s blind-faith regurgitation of Ukrainian government assertions when multiple western media outlets parroted her unevidenced claims about two Russians raping a one year-old baby to death.
Business Insider, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro, The Daily Mirror and Yahoo News all published reports on the same story, and the one and only source for all of them was a post made by Denisova on a Ukrainian government website which contained no evidence and concluded with a call for more weapons and sanctions against Russia from the western world.
Western Media Run Blatant Atrocity Propaganda For The Ukrainian Government
"The latest story making the rounds is a completely unevidenced claim made by a Ukrainian government official that Russians are going around raping Ukrainian babies to death."https://t.co/tuYauL2Hol
— Caitlin Johnstone ? (@caitoz) May 21, 2022
Moon of Alabama has compiled other western news media reports which have been uncritically regurgitating claims made by Denisova and disguising those claims as news stories, like Business Insider’s “Ukraine says it received more than 400 reports of sexual violence, including rape, by Russian soldiers within 2 weeks” and Time’s “Ukrainians Are Speaking Up About Rape as a War Crime to Ensure the World Holds Russia Accountable.”
This is not just brazen journalistic malpractice, this is actual atrocity propaganda. This latest development shows that even the Ukrainian government is more skeptical of Ukrainian government claims than the western mainstream press.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar onPatreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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You’d think this might have made the BBC main news bulletins or Reuters daily briefing, seeing as allegations of Russian atrocities have resulted in more weapons, but No.
So frustrating that nearly everyone I know believes the “News” to be objective and balanced.
Keep up the good work.
Bravo!
and
Thankyou!
Keep writing!
The sad thing is that “stupid propaganda” works, after a fashion. What percentage of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 attacks? Huge. Thus “responsible press” may add some remarks like “not fully confirmed” or “according to Ukrainian authorities” and folks will assemble news into a picture without “cognitive dissonance”, that is, we support Ukraine because/thus they are good and try to do maximal harm to Russia because/thus they are bad.
“Thus” and “because” are conflated. All weasel-like texts like “according to … authorities” or “unconfirmed” etc. are deleted from the reader or listener mind if they do not harmonize with the already formed picture of the world, and additional causalities are added. I do not recall Bush Jr. and his official LITERALLY saying that Saddam was responsible for 9/11, but because Iraq was attacked BECAUSE of 9/11, it meant that either he was responsible or our government is evil, and it is so much nicer to believe that the government tries to do its best, even if not always correctly. If the government is evil, we are in danger of getting paranoid, developing ulcers, ticks etc., and if the government tries to do its best, but the results are, hm, disappointing, we can sleep well and in a year or two vote for another party that will fix that.
That said, people who read Consortium News are of the type that has difficulties removing pieces discordant with the vision “our government tries its best” and adding supportive pieces to that picture, and perhaps are more resistant to psychosomatic consequences of living in a dangerous world. Propaganda aims to keep people of that sort as a small minority.
Has the World MSM retracted these articles or are they still being published ?
And this was their top “human rights” official?
Oh, Uncle Sam-dim, behold what moldy passel of nuts you have nosed out & made junior partner this time so you can shove your schnozzola in, butinski-wise, in gormless search of yet another plundered feedbag?
Does anyone remember the atrocity propaganda about incubators babies being thrown on the floor at a Kuwaiti Hospital used to garner support for the George Bush Sr administration’s first Gulf war with Iraq? The point is that if the US wants a war, it will provide an excuse and Americans suck it up like candy. WMD’s anyone?
“Denisova’s name featured just the other day in my own critique of the western media’s blind-faith regurgitation of Ukrainian government assertions when multiple western media outlets parroted her unevidenced claims about two Russians raping a one-year-old baby to death.”
Does anyone remember the atrocity propaganda about incubators babies being thrown on the floor at a Kuwaiti Hospital used to garner support for the George Bush Sr administration’s first Gulf war with Iraq? The point is that if the US wants a war, it will provide an excuse and Americans suck it up like candy. WMD’s anyone?
Thank you, Caitlin Johnstone!! I know your head is bloodied so very much, but it’s still not bowed. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. I read that charge by Denisova. It was the one that bowed me..
The firing is a (weak) attempt by the US/Ukrainian government to create plausible deniability of the fact that it is the source of the torrent of lies manufactured to sell this US war of aggression. Apparently the US is somewhat concerned that even the brain dead, ignorant and foolish American people “might” become at least a tiny bit suspicious of these outrageously sensationalist claims. I doubt that the Hegemon has much to worry about. I have witnessed a half century of US wars of aggression being successfully sold to these fools with lies. As far as I can tell, most of the fools are still waving their damn Ukrainian flags and cheering for unlimited US support for this latest disaster. But, of course, it is not a disaster for the thieves who run the show. They are, once again, being greatly enriched. And the politicians are, in turn, receiving their share of the loot. And the Hegemon’s effort to maintain its unipolar position in the world is being advanced — for the moment. No one in Washington seems to have taken into account the longer term effects of the boomerang effect of its sanctions. No surprise there. And then there is that little matter of possible nuclear annihilation, which only those with a functioning brain worry about.
Great work!
It is hard to believe that she can fabricate such a despicable and abhorrent image.
Unfortunately it is NOT !!
If the events of the last two years have taught us anything, it is that senior officials lie continually to protect their agendas, money and power. This woman is one of very many.
That last paragraph is a winner lol.