Western Media: The Empire of Hypocrisy

By Mohammad Sleem

Beirut – The conflict in Ukraine has taken the lid off how mainstream western media really works. For the past seven day, the world has been witnessing an absurd trend in double-standards in terms of how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is being dealt with. Newspaper headlines and TV shows in the West have been bulked out with hypocrisy, as journalists and political figures expressed empathy towards the Ukrainians being displaced, only to disregard the invasions and wars they waged years ago on third world countries.

As the situation in Ukraine escalates, Ukrainians and other people from different nationalities and races began leaving the country for safety. In a matter of days, western journalists, media pundits, and political figures released a great deal of statements that were hypocritical and racists in addressing the plight of the refugees in Ukraine.

A couple of African students have posted a video on social media slamming the racism they suffered on the Ukraine-Poland border, as they were obliged to wait for 24 hours while white people crossed the border easily.

Moreover, a senior Ukrainian official stated in a televised meeting, "It's very emotional for me, as I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair getting killed"; a statement that left immense shock on social media platforms.

In his article in The Telegraph, British journalist Daniel Hannan wrote, “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. Its people watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts.”

Hannan wanted to portray that ONLY Europeans – and NOT war-stricken third world people – have such privileges. He was widely criticized online for his article, with tweebs pointing to how low his writings have gotten. For many, this is the worst kind of journalism, if it even deserves to be called as such.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict prolongs, hypocrisy in the media coverage of the events keep on unfolding. The Sun Herald has dedicated on February 28 its front-page to an article with the title “A Capital Under Siege”, depicting what it called the “chaos” in the Ukrainian capital as “Dramatic images show the collision of military conflict against a civilian population as Russia began its siege of Kiev.”

However, this same American newspaper had not covered the situation of third world countries that had been invaded by the United States and its allies when they were under siege for years.   

Over and above, CBS news reporter Charel D’agata during his live coverage from Keiv said, “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European...”; showing the true face of western propaganda when events are conflicting with their interests.

Additionally, a couple of days back, the New York Post posted a picture and captioned it, "A heroic Ukrainian soldier blows himself up on a bridge to prevent Russian Army to advance more.” Supposedly, if this same operation happened against western colonials in the Middle East, the caption would be: “Terrorist wages suicide attack against our peaceful troops.”

To validate claims with actions in terms of the fakery of western calls for respecting the freedom of speech, the European Union had adopted sanctions against the state-owned outlets RT/ Russia Today and Sputnik, censoring their broadcast in the EU – an indirect way to ban any coverage from the Russian side.

Not only was western news coverage tainted with hypocrisy, but the calls for excluding Russia from sporting events had a fair share. Russia has been excluded from current sporting events or stripped the country of its right to host events directed by European countries. The UEFA and FIFA suspended all Russian clubs and national teams from competitions “until further notice”.

Although the scenario of a war breaking out is the worst regardless of time and place, this is the first war in modern history that exposed disinformation of western countries. This war laid bare the hypocritical double-standards of the West’s so-called freedom of speech.