In the processing of obsessing over the Russian media coverage of the Ukraine crisis, Examiner does away with actual reporting and goes for the long-proven tactic of dismissing facts and sources it doesn't like, in the service of the “blame Russia” trope.
To start with, Examiner accuses RT of citing a theory of the Boeing 777 crash discussed in a supposedly non-existent article in Malaysia’s New Straits Times, despite that article, headlined “Missile, cannon brought down jet?” taking up a full page in the newspaper (see photo below). Who needs journalism when you can print as fact the denial from the Malaysian Defense Minister? The statement from him appeared in the New Straits Times three days after the original article. It was framed as the response to the “social media reports” that MH17 could have been shot down by fighter jets, and entirely forgot NST’s own massive report on theories about the tragedy. So it’s much easier for Examiner to say that RT essentially made the whole thing up.
Then Examiner valiantly “exposes” RT’s misrepresentation of Russia’s Public Chamber as “activists,” while being completely ignorant of the fact that most of the members of the Chamber ARE in fact activists – leaders of social and human rights organizations in Russia, i.e. NGOs – and not government officials. The “big reveal” of activists belonging to the Russian Public Chamber is doubly funny (or sad?) because the Public Chamber is named by RT in the article’s very first sentence.
Meanwhile, instead of calling out NATO on its flip-flopping and “communication error” with regard to Kiev using ballistic missiles in eastern Ukraine, Examiner straight up ignores the CNN report breaking that story.
If Examiner wasn’t so busy looking for a Russian conspiracy around every dark corner, it could have paid a little more attention to the sins of its mainstream media colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic. Yes, those colleagues who spent months ignoring, minimizing or outright denying the evidence that Kiev was using neo-Nazi militants and foreign hired guns to fight its battles in southeast Ukraine – until the truth became too much to ignore, at least for The Telegraph and The New York Times. Alas, this is what we have come to expect.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.