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    MoA: When Media Provide 'Analyses' Archived Message

    Posted by Tomski on January 20, 2023, 6:46 pm

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/01/when-media-provide-analyses-.html#more

    There was a time when news and opinion pieces were all there was in a newspaper. The usual advertisements and crossword puzzles were just the supporting extras on top of that. But some two decades ago a new form of 'news' was added to the content. It called itself 'analyses' and claimed to be a neutral form of discussing this or that item. Written by journalists, not opinion editors, it was supposed to be fact based.

    But after reading many of those 'analysis' I found that they are mostly used for propaganda. Their conclusions are obviously developed before the journalist or 'columnist' goes out and collects whatever may support those.

    We find one example of such 'analysis' in today's Washington Post.

    Written by Ishaan Tharoor it opens with a very broad claim.

    ‘Give them the tanks!’: Davos elites rally behind Ukraine



    DAVOS, Switzerland — At this annual meeting where global elites are urged to collaborate, cooperate and get along, one message rang loudest: Send the weapons. As in the previous World Economic Forum session in May, the war in Ukraine loomed large in discussions. And while political leaders voiced their steadfast support for Kyiv, so too did a host of major corporate bigwigs.

    The first question is of course why the people who fly in their private or government jets to Davos to discuss the climate problems they are causing are supposed to be 'elites'.

    But lets set that aside for now. What I really quarrel with is the people mentioned in the peace who supposedly want to ship even more weapons to Ukraine.

    There is the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the ever mealy mouthed CNN filler Fareed Zakaria.

    Next to Zelensky was the ...

    ... former British prime minister Boris Johnson — who, no matter his controversial ouster at home, remains a popular figure among Ukrainians
    One wonders how many Ukrainians Thardoor has spoken with before making that 'popular figure' claim. Recall that it was Johnson who in early April 2022 prevented Zelensky from signing a peace agreement with Russia and urged him to wage a wider war:

    According Ukrainska Pravda sources close to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages.

    The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with.

    And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not.

    Johnson’s position was that the collective West, which back in February had suggested Zelenskyy should surrender and flee, now felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to "press him."
    ...
    After that, according to Ukrainska Pravda sources, the bilateral negotiation process [with Russia] was paused.

    Since then some 300,000 Ukrainians were wounded and some 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died. What do they or their relatives think about Johnson's intervention? Is he 'popular' for them?

    Tharoor goes on:

    In Davos, the sentiment was overwhelming. “Give them the tanks! There’s absolutely nothing to be lost,” Johnson insisted, adding that the world needed to place greater trust in the Ukrainians’ courage and fighting spirit. “We continually underestimated the willingness and the ability of Ukrainians to fight and defend their homeland. … They proved the world completely wrong. They are going to win. We need to help them win as fast as possible.”

    Is some uttering of the ever lying Boris Johnson 'elite'? Does it really reflect the opinion of those in Davos?

    Tharoor has more sources.

    In its pavilion, U.S. tech company Palantir hosted Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who celebrated his nation’s usage of Palantir’s data-driven software in its prosecution of the war against Russia.

    At the same breakfast session, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, spoke of his plans to help coordinate billions of dollars worth of reconstruction financing for Ukraine, saying he hoped the initiative would also turn the country into a “beacon of capitalism.” David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, spoke cheerily of Ukraine’s postwar future. “There is no question that as you rebuild, there will be good economic incentives for real return and real investment,” he said.

    Nothing of the above is a real opinion. These are people hyping their businesses which they hope will profit from the war.

    A succession of European leaders, like Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, insisted their governments would maintain total support for Ukraine for as “long as it takes.” Members of a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation echoed the sentiment. The rhetoric belies concerns privately held by many officials: As my colleagues reported Thursday evening, CIA Director William J. Burns recently traveled to Kyiv to meet Zelensky to brief him on U.S. expectations for Russia’s upcoming military campaigns and convey that, at some point, the scale of current assistance to Ukraine may be harder to come by.
    More the reason, Ukraine’s supporters contend, to rush aid now and help Ukraine make more rapid gains. “Whenever Ukraine goes to negotiations, it has to go in as strong as possible in those talks,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told me.

    That's it for the 'facts' underlying the nonexistent 'analysis' of that column.

    The only one talking tanks is the bygone British prime minister Boris Johnson. Nothing provides support for the claim that it is the 'overwhelming sentiment'.

    There is nothing provided by Tharoor but a collection of the current standard blabber of 'western' politicians and marketing talk by some business folks who are hoping for large payouts to them.

    His 'analysis' is a war mongering opinion peace. Its conclusion was preconceived.

    'Elite' it is certainly not.

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    Posted by b on January 20, 2023 at 16:20 UTC

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