Western Media Showcases Western Racism

The coverage of the war in Ukraine shows the bias

Photo by Yanny Mishchuk on Unsplash

I watch international news sources more than I watch American ones. I started doing this decades ago, when I discovered that, aside from NPR, it was hard to find what I consider real journalism in the United States. At least the type that provides real depth vs. talking points.

I watch a little bit of everything, including occasionally American sources, but I prefer the BBC, Al Jazeera, and WION, which is an Indian site. I also sometimes catch Australian or Irish news. Not all international sites are better than American ones, but in many cases if the video sites aren’t great the written news sources are. For example, when I was an undergrad, I became addicted to the British magazine, The Economist. Along with the old Scientific American, these became staples of my college days. Unfortunately, since that time the latter has been dumbed down and is no longer palatable but MIT’s Technology Review gives my inner-geek some joy.

What does not fill me with joy — the blatant racism I saw today when I tuned into Wion with my afternoon tea and biscuits.

I heard outrageous racism being perpetrated by journalists who should know better.

There was a guy on the BBC who stated that the situation in Ukraine was really emotional for him because he saw European people with blond hair and blue eyes being killed. Why should someone’s hair and eye color make a difference to how we feel about an innocent person being murdered?

However, it got worse.

NBC had a reporter telling us that the Ukrainian refugees were not from Syria, they were Christian and white like us, very similar to us.

HELLO???

White like us? Who is us? Did not the white lady realize that people watching NBC are American? Guess what? America is a diverse country and not everyone is white. Also, duh, not everyone is Christian. I am, but many are not. When she says “us”, she is excluding lots of Americans. I hate to break it to her, but their lives matter too.

Then fricking Al-Jazeera had a guy on there talking about how these were not refugees from the Middle East, these were prosperous middle-class…