More Western Media Bias

I haven't written anything here in nearly eight months, and that's because I've felt that I don't really have anything to add. Most of the stories that have raised my ire in the past eight months have basically been re-imaginings of things I've written about here. But the Western media's coverage of the 2008 South Ossetian War (as WP has decided to call it) has annoyed me enough to make me do this. I've got to leave for work in about 10 minutes, but I'll quickly put down some thoughts.

First, the media seems to forget that the Georgians started this war. What's even more amazing is that no one disputes it. Every article I've read includes a paragraph that basically states that Georgia invaded South Ossetia and the Russians came in and drove them back out, going into Georgia in the process. Simple enough, but the very next paragraph goes on to talk about "Russia's attack." Here is a perfect example:

"The long-simmering dispute over those breakaway areas turned to war this month after Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed the Georgian forces and drove deep into its neighbor.

Russia's attack has caused serious strains in relations with the West and heightened fears in the young democracies of Eastern Europe."(from here)

The article is typical. Saakshvili blamed the overrunning of the Georgian countryside on the Russians and a timid West, while no one felt it necessary to point out that he himself had started the war.

Casualty numbers have been lumped together, and no mention of various alleged Georgian atrocities is to be found anywhere in the mainstream media, though numerous reports of Russian barbarism are to be found. A recent article in the local paper talked about how 2000 people had been killed, framing the sentence in a way as to lay the blame for the brunt of the casualties at the feet of the Russians. In fact, about 1600 of those (at the time of the article) were South Ossetians, where the capital completely ruined and Human Rights Watch reports that invading Georgian army units committed a number of atrocities, including some good old-fashioned burning of villages, 15th-century style.

I could go on, but I must leave very soon. So I just want to point out one more thing real quick-like. The US and Poland have signed a deal whereby the US is planning on putting ICBM shootdown equipment on Polish soil, and the Russians have said that in the event of a nuclear war, they'll be launching nukes at Poland too. The media has entirely taken this out of context, framing it as if the Russians are declaring they'll be attacking immediately, not as a result of wider hostilities.

Ok, I didn't quite finish it before I had to leave. So I'll wrap it up before I go to bed. In all this, I'm not defending Putin and his puppet Medvedev - they have their own issues to answer for, not least of which was the former's war with a breakaway republic, Chechnya. My point is that the media is here enforcing another ugly double standard, which they seem to do so well. When Kosovo tried to breakaway from Serbia, we bombed the Serbs and smashed their infrastructure, with the media fan-boyishly awed over the spectacular military fireworks. When the Israelis crush Palestinian attempts at autonomy and invade Lebanon, the media throws their full support behind the invaders (see my ol' piece here for more on that). And of course when the United States launches the most massive and destructive military operation in the world since Vietnam, the media rides along, "embedded" with the military and cheering them on every minute. The Russians certainly took advantage of the situation and pushed the limits of what could be considered a "counter-attack." But let's not forget the Georgians initiated this whole ordeal (why they thought they could take on the Russian military remains still a mystery), and have committed the majority of atrocities in this conflict. The media would do well to report that.

Post note: There was a great article in the Courant (they do their job better than most, I give them credit for that) about the Arab public's reaction to Bush's anti-Russian rhetoric. Mainly, it's "Hey George, remember that little invasion you undertook here? Yeah, I'd keep your mouth shut if I were you."

Also, Colin McEnroe offhandedly mentioned Mogwai, which, though couched in dismissive language, is still something I found pleasantly surprising. He doesn't seem to quite understand the beauty of Kicking a Dead Pig.