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Bezos' Washington Post goes all in for Trump/Putin [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-07
Why focus on the Washington Post’s shilling for Trump and Putin in their coverage of Ukraine? www.dailykos.com/…, www.dailykos.com/…,www.dailykos.com/… First, Trump’s deal to ally with Putin to betray Ukraine is in the same league as the Hitler/Stalin pact in historical significance. It is more likely to be enduring. Hitler and Stalin were enemies who made a deal of convenience for short-term benefits — Unlike Hitler and Stalin, Trump and Putin are partners who share a common ideology - creating a world safe for corrupt, anti-democratic gangster, oligarchs. Second, the Washington Post has a unique role in American political culture, i.e. anointed by the Republican Party, Fox News and the rest of the corporate media as the apotheosis of the “liberal” media. The fact that this reputation is an anachronism resting on the 50 year old laurels from Woodward and Bernstein is irrelevant in post-truth America. Third, controlling or neutering the media is an essential tool in establishing and consolidating (Gleichshaltung) authoritarian or dictatorial regimes. Bezos’ decision to silence writers at the Post who disagree with his “libertarian” new world order represents a significant building block for Trump’s plan.
John Hudson, Michael Birnbaum, and Ellen Francis are the latest nominees for Most Bezos Obedient WaPost employees with their story Trump administration to pause future deliveries of military aid to Ukraine. www.washingtonpost.com/... The theme of the Post article is a wholesale adoption of the Trump narrative that Trump’s abandoning Ukraine for his alliance with Putin is a new development triggered by: (1) the staged White House ambush of Zelensky and the recent White House narrative that (2) Zelensky is a dictator and (3) Zelensky doesn’t want peace (but Putin does in Trump/Musk world).
Michael Birnbaum and Ellen Francis have become “ go to” Trump apologists at the Post. Birnbaum was chosen lead writer for a Trump/Zelensky meeting story www.washingtonpost.com/... This story swallowed whole the Trump line that the White House expected a smooth meeting before Zelensky arrived wearing the military clothes he always wears: “White House officials were expecting a positive meeting and said they had little reason to anticipate animosity.” www.dailykos.com/ Although Birnbaum and Francis in their report on the meeting did not trouble readers with the views of Ukrainians, Democrats, or Ukraine experts like Timothy Snyder or Anne Applebaum, they exhaustively detailed the White House decorations (58 flags lining the driveway, 56 from US states and territories) and revealed that the dinner featured rosemary chicken and creme brule and discussed at length faux Republican outrage over Zelensky’s wearing his usual clothes. www.washingtonpost.com/…
What we don’t know is whether their puff pieces resulted from Bezos’s orders to edit or censor their story, self-censorship/anticipatory obedience, or from a combination of the two. Even if Post reporters have been ordered by Bezos not to speak to or quote Ukrainians, Democrats, or Timothy Snyder about the war, they could have spoken to John Bolton, former Trump National Security advisor who described Trump’s “peace plan” as something that “could have been written in Moscow:”
A former national security adviser to Donald Trump (John Bolton) warned that the U.S. president’s proposed deal to end the war in Ukraine “comes pretty close to surrender” to Vladimir Putin’s objectives — and cautioned that the process could lead to the U.S. exiting NATO.www.politico.eu/...
The Bezos-Trump Template
Birnbaum, and Francis and now Hudson have established a template for anti-Ukraine, pro-Putin, Trump Apologist stories likely to be favored by Bezos.
1.Quoting extensively from Trump and administration talking points
2. Omitting (or censoring) facts which contradict Trump’s claims or provide context
(3) Omitting (or censoring) Ukrainian sources
(4) Omitting (or censoring)sources from Democrats -neither elected officials nor former Government officials who dealt with foreign policy, military, or intelligence issues
(5) Omitting (or censoring) independent experts
(6) Omitting (or censoring) European democracy sources
(7) Avoiding discussion of the Trump Putin relationship to avoid offending Trump in order to make Zelensky “the problem”
(8) First impressions are important. The template parrot Trump PR points at the beginning of articles while burying more “balanced” information at the end of the article.
Many direct quotes from Trump Administration, Don’t quote from Ukrainian, Democratic, or European Sources
There are at least 5 direct quotes from Trump or administration officials and at least 5 indirect quotes from Trump or administration officials about the White House cutting off military aid to Ukraine. Hudson, Birnbaum and Francis are stenographers to power who use the unethical practice of quoting anonymous officials who support their bosses. Anonymity should protect whistleblowers who reveal truth to power or at least question those in power, not those who will be rewarded for doing their job of spouting the party line. The article cites a white house official, top aides, a second official, current and former officials, Defenders of the policy, Trump officials, and Trump. All of these anonymous sources whom the Post is protecting from scrutiny flatter Trump, trash Ukraine and Zelensky, and none of them say anything unfavorable to Putin or Trump. www.washingtonpost.com/..
How many direct quotes does the Post use from Ukrainian or Ukrainian sympathetic sources? — NONE, How many direct quotes from elected Democrats or Democratic former government officials -NONE, How may direct quotes from independent experts — NONE, How many direct quotes from European Democracy sources -NONE. Is it a coincidence that the previous Birnbaum and Francis story on the Zelensky/Trump meeting followed the same pattern of direct quotes only from Trump sources? (with the sole exception that exactly one non-Republican source, NATO secretary Rutte, was allowed a one word quote “enduring” which was entirely neutral.
Were Ukrainian sources unavailable to talk to Hudson, Birnbaum, and Francis? Not likely. Oleksandr Merezhko, Chair of Ukraine’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and a Zelensky ally, told Reuters that the crisis created by Trump was “worse than Munich”:
"This is worse than Munich, because at least there they didn't try to paint Czechoslovakia as the aggressor, but here they try to accuse the victim of aggression - it is extremely dangerous." it looked like Trump was pushing Ukraine towards capitulation...” www.reuters.com/...
A Politico reporter was told by Merezhko that Trump was “parroting Putin’s demands.” Former Ukrainian Army Commander Zaluzhnyi, now ambassador to the UK, has not been hesitant in calling out the Trump/Putin alliance:
“It’s obvious that the White House has questioned the unity of the whole western world, and now Washington is trying to delegate the security issues to Europe without participation of the US. So we can say that in the near future, Nato … can stop existing,” he said. www.theguardian.com/...
It is hard to come up with a plausible reason why Hudson, Birnbaum, and Francis didn’t attempt to get a quote from Merezhko or Zaluzhnyi except that the Post discourages or censors comments unfavorable to Trump or Putin. When sources are asked about information and they do not comment, the article usually says so, but there is no indication in the story that the Post tried to get a Ukrainian response.
Even if Ukrainian government officials did not want to make a response, why didn’t these reporters quote anonymous Ukrainian government sources. just as they quoted at least 5 anonymous Trump sources trashing Zelensky?
Lead with Trump PR points, bury “balance” less favorable to Trump at the end of the story
The Post works the primacy principle: the first 5 paragraphs of the story on cutting off military aid are all Trump talking points until the last sentence of the 5th paragraph which cites Ukraine’s objection (but not Europe’s objections) to Trump and Putin holding discussions to partition Ukraine without consulting Ukraine or its NATO allies.
Thumb on the Scale Bothsideism
Even when writing about Europe’s position or from others critical of Trump, the framing is heavily slanted towards Trump
..as Washington moves toward negotiations to end the war on terms that many see as being favorable to Moscow. www.washingtonpost.com/...
Post Newspeak says “many” see Trump’s terms as pro-Putin. The truth is that everyone except Trump, Putin, the Republican party, and neo-Nazi and fascist parties consider the Trump terms, i.e. make concessions before negotiations begin, make peace deals without any US security guarantees against a war-criminal who has violated past agreements, and shutting Ukraine out of NATO, as pro-Putin.
Gross Misrepresentation by Omission
Deliberately omitting important countervailing facts essentially amounts to lying by omission. For example, the Post conspicuously fails to mention that formerly anti-Russian Republican “conservatives” conversion to a Pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine position have shifted towards Putin in synchrony with Trump’s more blatant support for Putin.
.. initial bipartisan backing for Ukraine’s resistance has fractured along partisan lines amid doubts about the war’s costs and a diplomatic off-ramp.www.washingtonpost.com/...
Failure to provide Context demonstrating that Trump’s longstanding plan is to abandon Ukraine and support Putin’s Imperialism
The thrust of the story, as reflected in the first 5 paragraphs of the story is that Trump’s open siding with Putin is a recent reaction of Trump to Zelensky’s becoming a dictator and offending Trump at the meeting rather than saying the quiet part outloud — in Trump’s America, Putin’s Fascist Russia, Orban’s neo-fascist Hungary, and the neo-Nazi AFD are now America’s allies, and former American allies for the last 80 years like the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Canada, and other NATO nations are the enemy.
Completely absent from the Post story are facts supporting the proposition that that stopping aid for Ukraine is part of Trump’s long term strategy to help Russia win the war instead of a recent reaction to Zelensky’s uppity attitude. The facts omitted by Hudson, Birnbaum, and Francis shedding light on Trump’s motivation which refute the Trump meme include:
-Trump’s hatred of Zelensky started or accelerated after Zelensky refused to “do Trump a favor” by knuckling under to Trump’s extortion: announcing an investigation of Hunter Biden before the 2020 election in return for the US providing Javelins.
-Trump told Speaker Mike Johnson to hold up delivery of ammunition to Ukraine for 6 months, allowing Russia to take the offensive because Russia had a 10 to 1 advantage in artillery shells.
-Trump’s bromance love note to Putin that they had both suffered from publicity that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election on a large scale.
-Trump removed Russia from cyber security observation to allow Moscow hackers greater freedom to conduct operations in the US
-Trump voted with Russia, Belarus, and North Korea to kill a UN resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine
-Trump’s proposed mineral deal would have provided an estimated 500 billion dollars in benefits to “pay back” the United States for 180 billion dollars in aid, but provided no benefits for Ukraine.
“Trump has long been skeptical of aid to Ukraine” www.washingtonpost.com/... are the Newspeak, mealy mouth words of apologists and advocates for Trump.
While Hudson, Birnbaum, and Francis thought it important to amplify and recycle Trump’s calling Zelensky a dictator, they omitted or censored the obvious refutation that Zelensky offered to resign if lasting peace were secured by NATO membership or that the Ukrainian Constitution, like the British Constitution does not provide for elections during major wars.
A newspaper with pretensions of integrity and professionalism would have at least presented a few facts supporting critics of the Trump line that Zelensky’s uppity attitude is the reason that the US has abandoned Ukraine.
Independent Experts
A favorite technique of the Post when the facts have a liberal bias is to limit the story to “he said, she said” by not consulting someone with expertise. Of course, WaPost reporters avoid quoting Timothy Snyder or Anne Applebaum, two legitimate Ukraine experts, because they support democracy and are opposed to Putin. A search of the Post for Applebaum and Snyder reveals that they were mentioned by columnists (not reporters) Jennifer Rubin in October 2024 and Ishaan Tharoor in November 2024. Not coincidentally, Rubin has left the Post because she could no longer put up with Bezos’s censorship. Post reporters seem to have read the memo on quoting Snyder and Applebaum. A search using the terms Applebaum, Snyder, and Ukraine indicates that.. they were last mentioned by Post reporters on March 12,2022, less than a month after the Russian invasion. www.washingtonpost.com/...
In these two stories about the Trump?Zelensky meeting and cutting off aid, there is one “expert” quoted, Justin Logan, an employee of the Koch Brothers founded CATO Institute. Logan is cited in support of the argument of Trump “defenders” that the United States has a right to enter into one on one negotiations with the aggressor state, blackmail Ukraine to sign an agreement making it a Russian puppet regime by withholding supplies (and now intelligence), and allowing the US to loot its mineral wealth. Tony Soprano and Nazi Legal Philosopher Carl Schmitt could not have defended the rules of the gangster world order more vigorously.
2 minutes of research, which the Post either did not do or chose to omit, would have established that Logan has a history of supporting Putin and Trump’s appeasement/alliance with Russia. Less than 3 months after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Logan published an article opposing Finland’s joining NATO and advocating that the United States withdraw from NATO:
Stepping back from Europe would save the United States at least $80 billion each year. Now is the time for U.S. retrenchment from Europe, not expansion there. nationalinterest.org/...
Do Bezos Post writers know how to find knowledgeable scholars who can give readers historical and geopolitical perspective or does their rolodex stop at “C” for Cato Institute?
How would a real journalist have covered the story of Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine and NATO?
The British newspaper, The Independent, illustrates how a non-oligarch press covers the story in plain English:
He (Trump) has recently adopted almost every one of the Russian negotiating principles for peace in Ukraine, before his diplomats even met any Russians. Trump has ruled out a return of all captured Ukrainian territory, Nato support in a peacekeeping force, a Ukrainian presence in talks and future Nato membership for Ukraine. Who knows, the US president shrugged, maybe Ukraine “will be Russian one day”. ..Trump has further suggested that he would not automatically come to the aid of Nato nations under Russian attack. www.independent.co.uk/...
There are some Post writers who do not pander to Bezos, but this number is dwindling fast. Real Journalists who do not write in Newspeak en.wikipedia.org/... are an endangered species at the WaPost.
How to Support Ukraine and Democracy when your government doesn’t
Bezos and the Washington Post no longer support Ukraine’s war for independence and democracy, but you can. United 24 is a news and donation site sponsored by the government of Ukraine u24.gov.ua/... There are many worthy organizations standing up for democracy, but one advantage to United 24 is that you have the option to donate money to help Ukraine with military support the US government has withdrawn. Ammunition reduces the need for bandages.
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