Facts are subversive: How Canada’s mainstream media spreads disinformation about the conflict in Ukraine

 

Read before you write 

Once asked to explain his role as reporter preeminent investigative journalist I.F. Stone (1907-1989) answered: “To write the truth as I see it; to defend the weak against the strong; to fight for justice; to bring healing perspectives to bear on the terrible hates and fears of mankind, in the hope of some day bringing about a world in which man will enjoy the differences of the human garden instead of killing each other over them.”   

Isidor “Izzy” Feinstein Stone was an unapologetic anti-war and anti-imperialist journalist, a rare breed of independent reporter, underrepresented in his time, and unheard of in today’s media wilderness. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh was a friend and protégé of Stone. In his memoir Reporter, Hersh gushes over what was Stone’s legendary MO: “Reading and reading and reading before writing.” When speaking to journalism students Hersh never tires of exhorting the next generation of ink-stained wretches to, “Read before you write!” 

The current crop of Canadian journalists working in the establishment press apparently didn’t get Hersh’s memo, at least not those reporters covering international affairs and Canada’s foreign policy. Canadians who get their news mostly in the mainstream media are too often presented with more misinformation and omission than fact and evidence about Canada’s role and responsibility in the world. Biased coverage of Latin America, Russia, China, and the Middle East is stark evidence that Canadians won’t get to experience reliable public interest journalism for a long time at best. 

This writing (presented in two parts) shines a critical light on the derelict performance of Canada’s fourth estate in its coverage of foreign affairs. The aim is to impel succeeding generations to reject the unreliable reportage demonstrated by their forerunners who have been committing, what amounts to journalism fraud.

A disquieting case in point is reporting in the Canadian establishment press of the Ukraine-Russia war.  (more...)

Facts are subversive: How Canada’s mainstream media spreads disinformation about the conflict in Ukraine