In other words, a logical -- and indeed realistic -- way to see the Ukraine-Crimea crisis is that Putin was largely responding to events that were outside his control. And that is important to understand, because that would mean that Putin was not the aggressor spoiling for a fight.
If there was premeditation, it was coming from the West and particularly from the neocons who remain highly influential in Official Washington. The neocons also had motive to go after Putin, since he helped Obama use diplomacy to quiet down dangerous crises with Syria and Iran while the neocons were pushing for more confrontation and U.S. military strikes.
But how did the U.S. news media present the Ukraine story to the American people?
First, there was the simplistic and misleading depiction of the pro-EU demonstrations as "democratic" when they mostly reflected the discontent of the pro-European population of western Ukraine, not the views of the more pro-Russian Ukrainians in the east and south who had pushed Yanukovych to victory in the 2010 election. Last time I checked, "democracy" referred to rule by the majority, not mob rule.
Then, despite the newsworthiness of the neo-Nazi role in the protests, the U.S. news media blacked-out these brown shirts because that ugly reality undercut the pleasing good-guys-vs.-bad-guys storyline. Then, when the snipers opened fire on protesters and policemen, the U.S. news media jumped to the conclusion that the killers were working for Yanukovych because that, too, fit with the desired narrative.
The violent overthrow of the democratically elected Yanukovych was hailed as an expression of "democracy," again with the crucial role of the neo-Nazi militias largely airbrushed from the picture. The unanimous and near unanimous parliamentary votes that followed -- as storm troopers patrolled the halls of government buildings -- were further cited as evidence of "democracy" and "reform."
The anger and fear of Ukrainians in the east and south were dismissed as Russian "propaganda" and Crimea's move to extract itself from this political chaos was denounced as Russian "aggression." U.S. news outlets casually denounced Putin as a "thug." Washington Post columnist George F. Will called Putin "Stalin's spawn."
Former Secretary of State Clinton cited the Crimea situation to compare Putin to Hitler and to suggest that Putin was intent on recreating the old Soviet empire, though Crimea is only 10,000 square miles, about one-tenth of one percent the size of the old Soviet Union.
And, it wasn't just that some or nearly all mainstream U.S. news organizations adopted this one-sided and misguided narrative. It was a consensus throughout all major U.S. news outlets. With a uniformity that one would normally associate with a totalitarian state, no competing narrative was permitted in the Big Media, regardless of the actual facts.
Whenever any of the more complex reality was included in a story, it was presented as Russian claims that were then followed by argumentative challenges. Yet, when U.S. officials made preposterous remarks about how uncivilized it was to violate another country's sovereignty, the hypocrisy of their points went uncontested.
For instance, Secretary of State Kerry denounced Putin's intervention in Crimea by declaring, "you just don't in the 21st Century behave in 19th Century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext." But you had to look on the Internet to find any writer who dared note Kerry's breathtaking double standard, since he voted in 2002 to authorize the U.S. invasion of Iraq in pursuit of hidden WMD stockpiles that didn't exist.
This cognitive dissonance pervaded the U.S. press and the political debate over Ukraine and Crimea. The long history of U.S. interventions in foreign countries -- almost always in violation of international law -- was forgotten, except for the rare occasion when some Russian "claim" about American hypocrisy was cited and then swatted down. [See Consortiumnews.com's "America's Staggering Hypocrisy."]
Careerism Prevails
Having worked many years in the mainstream U.S. news media, I fully understand how this process works and why it happens. Amid the patriotic chest-thumping that usually accompanies a U.S. military operation or American righteous outrage over some other nation's actions, it is dangerous for your career to go against the flag-waving.
But it's always been my view that such self-censorship is faux patriotism, as much as the happy storylines are false narratives. Even if many Americans don't want the truth, it is still the job of journalists to give them the truth. Otherwise, the U.S. democratic process is distorted and made dangerous.
Propaganda leads to bad policies as politicians -- even when they know better -- start parroting the errant conventional wisdom. We've seen this now with President Obama who -- more than anyone -- realizes the value of Putin's cooperation on Syria and Iran but now must join in denouncing the Russian president and demanding sanctions.
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