It’s very difficult to get a handle on what goes on in parts of Eastern Europe because there is a dearth of accurate information available that would allow proper assessments of what is going on. I’ve noticed that in particular with the Ukraine War and that may be in large part because there are not, as there was in Vietnam and some other similar conflicts, reporters on the front lines or at least as close to the front lines as possible. All the information coming out of the Ukraine conflict is mediated by either side in the conflict with very little from sources that could be reasonably said to be independent or impartial.
The same vagueness and partisanship in reporting is also apparent in the story of the coup attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Because there has been no reporters who have embedded themselves with the rebels behind the coup attempt the information that has come out has been less than trustworthy. A lot of what has come out has merely been the self justifying statements of key figures on either side and there has been very little independent information to either confirm or deny the accuracy of the statements made by belligerents.
The situation with regards reporting is not entirely the fault of those tasked with reporting the situation in Russia. Media organisations that once had large staffs covering Russia and Russian politics such as the BBC have had their reporters banned from Russia by the Russian government. This has meant that large media organisations are having to report from outside the country and to rely on information that is either wrong, dishonest or self serving and which has been put out by each side in the conflict. In effect, media entities reporting on the coup attempt in Russia are having to rely on the same information that the rest of us are getting as the personal contacts with those with more information, contacts that reporters rely on to provide background to stories or to use to help probe official sources for error and dishonesty, are no longer available to the reporters.
We are truly in a fog of war situation regarding what has said to have gone on in Russia not just regarding the coup attempt but also the Ukraine / Russia conflict more broadly. It might be days or even weeks before accurate and checkable information comes out about the coup attempt and gets reported in the Western media. That sort of situation might have been the norm for the 19th and early 20th century when communications technology was not as advanced as it is to day but it is not normal for today when information can and should travel at high speed to the newsrooms of media organisations.
Yet those selfsame media organisations are seemingly happy to embed themselves in Gaza and “palestine”, close their eyes, draw a salary and parrot any old shit cobbled together by Hamas and PIJ “stringers”bad “accurate” to attack Israel while not reporting the realities on the ground and now rarely venturing into Israel to see the realities of the attacks on her citizens.
The so-called “free” Western media or rather “mefia” such as the BBC, Sky, ITV, MSNBC, CNN, France 2, seem to delight in embedding their most rabid Jew haters to spread their biased poison, while ignoring the almost ritual killing of any Pali who is suspected of being of the LGBTQWERTYPLUSVAT alphabet soup.
Sadly, I can’t see it changing any time soon.
With the BBC the willingness to swallow hook line and stinker the Pally narrative is very apparent. As the Jerusalem Post article from 2021 says the BBC has a history of bias against Israel. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/lets-get-long-buried-report-on-bbc-anti-israel-bias-published-672116
I’m a great believer in the use of stringers to provide news coverage as sometimes a stringer can be more informed and sometimes cheaper than a person shipped out from the newsroom to cover a particular area. The problems come when the stringer has a bias and the newsroom bodies don’t consider the fact that the stringer might have a bias. The problem with the BBC is that when it comes to Israel the BBC journos might well disregard bias as it matches their own biases.
I read many sites, some requiring a VPN as they are blocked in the UK. This hopefully gives a more balanced view.
Some of the best Russo-friendly sites are:
Reminiscence of the Future, especially for its informed commentators.
Moon of Alabama, ditto
Southfront
It’s not a partisan site either pro or anti Russian that’s needed but something impartial and not connected to either side in the current conflict. The BBC used to be trusted to fulfill that role but no longer.
Interesting piece on the centre/left Harry’s Place site. ATL writer said that many of the talking heads that the broadcasters brought on following the initial news of the coup attempt, didn’t seem that well informed. Also a BTL commentator said that the coup attempt and the preparations for it may well have flew under the radar of Western intelligence services and come as somewhat of a surprise to them. If that claim turns out to be true then there should be a lot of egg on a lot of faces in the Western intel community. Something like this or the possibility of it should have been something that the agencies knew or suspected to either a lesser or greater degree of confidence. If the agencies have failed to have this knowledge or have not gamed the possiblity of a mercenary revolt (it’s not as if history is empty of such things) then that’s a big operational failure and an equally big embarrassment. See http://hurryupharry.net/2023/06/25/%d1%8f-%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%b7-%d0%bf%d0%be%d0%bd%d1%8f%d1%82%d0%b8%d1%8f/#disqus_thread
Following on from my comment on BBC bias on the climate change issue and the issues of embedding reporters. About ten years ago a guy called Turney commisioned a ship to sail to Antarctica in mid summer to document the catastrophic ice loss that climate scientists said was happening. The ship was stuffed with journalists from the BBC and the Guardian among others. Not only was it discovered that there was no shortage of ice, the ship ended up being iced in and stranded. Not a word about this laughable farce was mentioned in the mainstream media. Not one of those countless journalists had the integrity to report the unvarnished truth about what had occurred. Sorry guys but your actual job is to winkle out and expose this kind of stuff for the public good. In this case you didn’t even have to do any winkling you were given a free grandstand view.