(Dobbs) The War In Ukraine Should NOT Be Normalized
If American aid doesn’t come through, the end-game is obvious.
Our news media has stopped focusing on the slaughter in Ukraine. Now, most days, the media all but ignores it. Or at the very least, buries it.
Put another way, as bad as things are now on the ground in Ukraine— Thursday Russian missiles completely destroyed the largest power plant near Kiev, and President Zelensky lamented that the West is “turning a blind eye” to his nation’s need for more air defenses— our news media has begun to normalize it.
Consider the websites today, August 13th, of our major news organizations. They feature a lot of consequential news to be sure, and given the eclectic nature of news sites, a lot of trivial features too. What you won’t find on many of them though is anything more than a brief mention, in connection with some bigger political story, of Ukraine.
In The New York Times for example, the lead story on this Saturday morning dealt with the latest poll showing Biden closing the gap with Trump. That’s important as a snapshot in time but as most people understand, there are a thousand things that could turn that around in one direction or another. Sharing top billing on The Times’s website? “A Hollywood Remake of Your Fast Food Memories.”
After that, priority went to the mass murders by a man with a knife in Sydney, Australia, the attacks on a Palestinian West Bank village by right-wing Israeli settlers, the rift between China and India, and a reflective piece, after the death of O.J. Simpson, looking back on his trial.
Speaking of trials, Donald Trump’s, which finally starts Monday in Manhattan, was buried beneath a feature story about Kristaps Porziņģis, a star center for the Boston Celtics. So The Times did something right.
But Ukraine? It came up only in a piece about yesterday’s joint news conference at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and Speaker of the House Michael Johnson, when the ex-president said they had discussed American aid to Ukraine and might agree to reconfigure it “in the form of a loan.”
On CNN.com? The only mention I found today about Ukraine was in an open letter, penned by 35 Hollywood luminaries including Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn, calling on Congress to help Ukraine because— and they got this right— “Ukrainians are also fighting for our safety and for everyone’s freedom.” Otherwise though, no news on the main website about Ukraine’s falling fortunes on the battlefield.
At USA Today, the knife attack in Australia, the impact of the abortion issue on presidential politics, censorship in schools, and live updates from golf’s Masters tournament, shared top billing. I scrolled and scanned and did a keyword search and Ukraine never showed up.
Also only brief mentions on the two biggest mainstream news sites that don’t actually print a newspaper, Politico and Axios. Politico’s lead stories, consistent with the website’s name to be sure, were about Donald Trump’s prospects both in the campaign and in the courtroom. Buried below literally several dozen stories on other topics, Ukraine does come up in pieces about Russia’s battlefield losses (and how fast it’s replacing them), and the strong support for Ukraine by Japan’s prime minister in his Thursday speech to Congress. On the Axios website, I found only one mention of Ukraine: “House Democrats are engaged in a widespread whip operation aimed at persuading progressive stragglers to sign onto a discharge petition to force a vote on the Senate's Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid bill.”
Credit to three newspapers that did run stories about how badly the war is going.
The Los Angeles Times ran one with the tragic headline, “Ukrainians contemplate the once unthinkable: Losing the war with Russia.”
The piece is summarized by these three distressing sentences:
“The stalling of crucial American aid, a distinct dimming of the world spotlight, and simple war weariness are all exacting a heavy cost. On the front lines, exhausted Ukrainian troops are rationing ammunition as they fend off the latest Russian advances, and anxiety is mounting along with the military and civilian toll. ‘Every day, we’re dying,’ said Marta Tomakhiv, 33, standing in a sharp-edged shadow in Kyiv’s main Independence Square, mourning a friend from her western Ukrainian hometown who was killed in battle days earlier in the east.”
However, to reach that story about Ukraine, you had to scroll past several dozen others including retired quarterback Tom Brady’s possible interest in owning the Las Vegas Raiders, the “Golden Bachelor” getting a divorce, even one about someone suing a Disneyland worker dressed as Goofy for negligence.
In The Washington Post too, a descriptive account of Ukraine’s failing defenses: “Russian troops advance in Ukraine as Kyiv runs low on air defenses.”
But you had to get through stories about the economy, the Iranian seizure of a ship with ties to Israel, the stabbings in Sydney, “A fashion writer’s secret to travel style,” and, like the other news websites, a few dozen other pieces to reach it.
If you scroll through the Wall Street Journal online, you’ll find several pieces that paint a picture of the war, with headlines like “How American Drones Failed to Turn the Tide in Ukraine” (that was from three days ago), “Russia Strikes Slam Ukrainian Power Plants in Tactical Shift” (that was from two days ago), and from the last 24 hours, “China Has Helped Russia Boost Arms Production, U.S. Says,” “Putin Told IAEA Russia Plans to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant” (which it currently occupies), and an opinion piece with the title, “Trump Has a Plan for Ukraine: It’s Biden’s.”
The war in Ukraine grinds on. President Putin hasn’t blinked. If American aid doesn’t come through, the end-game is obvious.
American security depends on some kind of reversal. And that depends on public opinion. And that depends on the media. Ukraine’s war is as much in our interest as Israel’s. It should get the same attention. It should not be normalized.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
Thanks Greg…. You’ve well noted the odd coverage of, arguably, the most destructive conflict of the moment for the western world order. I mean no personal offense, but this is horribly flawed group think by our own media and a gift to Putin.
Thank you Greg, spot on. The news media, both print and television, has an incredible responsibility. The fourth estate is essential for a democracy to thrive. Sadly, it seems to be confused as to what really is important and what is not. At the same time it appears our elected officials have forgotten or do not understand what it takes to actually govern.
I do not understand why so many in the media and government have lost sight as to the importance and seriousness of the situation in Ukraine to world stability and peace.